Tag: Waves

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Waves All About?

Blockchain empowers people, organizations, and other entities to realize faster, more transparent, and trustless processes. But this is not just what the tech can accomplish. In fact, the tech was brought to life so it could support cryptocurrencies, which, in a nutshell, is internet-based, cryptographically-secured, and decentralized money. Thousands of blockchain-based currencies exist today. 

Blockchain empowers people, organizations, and other entities to realize faster, more transparent, and trustless processes. But this is not just what the tech can accomplish. In fact, the tech was brought to life so it could support cryptocurrencies, which, in a nutshell, is internet-based, cryptographically-secured, and decentralized money. Thousands of blockchain-based currencies exist today. 

Blockchain empowers people, organizations, and other entities to realize faster, more transparent, and trustless processes. But this is not just what the tech can accomplish. In fact, the tech was brought to life so it could support cryptocurrencies, which, in a nutshell, is internet-based, cryptographically-secured, and decentralized money. Thousands of blockchain-based currencies exist today. 

But away from ‘mainstream,’ full-blown cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the blockchain can support tokens for more humble purposes such as loyalty tokens for businesses, small-scale ICOs, and even crowdfunding. 

Waves is a platform that’s harnessing the power of blockchain to do just this. And it’s already successful in this niche, with a few high-profile applications. One of these is Burger King, Russia. The fast-food chain has created a loyalty token known as Whoopercoin based on Waves. Another is American politician Larry Sharpe who created a WAVES token – Sharpecoin for his 2018 campaign. 

What’s Waves? This guide tackles that question and more. 

Understanding Waves

Waves is a blockchain-based platform that allows anyone anywhere to create their own token. Whether you want a community-centered token, loyalty program, an in-game currency, there are no limits on the type of tokens you can create on Waves. 

Waves was created in 2016 by Sasha Ivanov with the goal of bringing blockchain-powered tokens closer to the people’s reach. The platform is equipped with token-building kits that are highly functional and easy-to-use. With the platform, Ivanov envisioned a world where anyone, individuals and organizations alike, can access and interact with the blockchain.

How Does Waves Work? 

Waves operates based on three core pieces of software:

  • Custom application tokens 
  • A decentralized exchange
  • Smart contracts 
#1.Custom Application Tokens (CATs)

The Waves platform exists mainly to facilitate the creation of tokens. CATs allow you to do this. You can create a token on the web or through a mobile app available for both iOS and Android.

You can buy, sell, trade, exchange, and transact with Waves-based tokens. Tokens created via the platform may not have as much applicability as tokens created on a more ‘sophisticated’ platform such as Ethereum, but they are infinitely easier to create, and besides, you don’t have to have any developing knowledge. This simple to use quality of  Waves makes it ideal for purposes such as in-app tokens, simple Initial Coin Offerings, and loyalty reward schemes.  

#2. Decentralized Exchange (DEX)

Decentralized exchanges are ones that are not overseen or controlled by any particular authority, with transactions being peer-to-peer. DEXs thus eliminate most of the shortcomings associated with centralized exchanges. 

Not only are DEXs more secure, but they are also more private as you’re not required to provide any personally-identifying information – as it is with centralized exchanges. Also, the exchange cannot arbitrarily freeze your funds or limit how many trades or withdrawals you can make.

Waves’ DEX utilizes an automated mechanism to pair buy and sell requests, streamlining the process for everyone involved. In February 2020, Waves announced the launch of a Fiat gateway that will enable users to purchase crypto with debit and credit cards.

#3. Smart Contracts

The Waves platform added a smart contract functionality to the platform in September 2018. The functionality enables users to create multisig addresses, freeze tokens, carry out atomic swaps, and create customized voting mechanisms. The smart contracts use a proprietary coding language known as RIDE. Unlike the Ethereum platform that requires gas for smart contract transactions, Waves charges a minimal fee -which is more upfront. 

Waves’ Two-tier Architecture

Unlike, say, on Bitcoin, nodes maintaining the Waves network do not need to download the whole blockchain. Instead, full nodes update the rest of the nodes (also known as lightweight nodes) on transaction verifications. 

To ensure trust between the two types of nodes, Waves utilizes the Scorex platform, a modular blockchain framework through which lightweight nodes use the current network state achieved by full nodes. 

A Leased Proof-of-Stake (LPoS)

LPoS is a modified version of the traditional proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. In LPoS, token holders lease their balance to full nodes, who create new blocks and receive rewards. They can then share these rewards with leasing nodes, who are rewarded according to their amount of stake – which is the total amount of tokens they leased. 

Leasing costs 0.002 waves. To run a full node, you need at least 1,000 WAVES. This requirement is a downward adjustment from the former minimum requirement of at least 10,000 WAVES. If you wish to become a full node but do not have 1000 WAVES, you can lease coins from other participants in the network. 

Miner Reward Token (MRT)

As a block creation full node, you earn miner reward tokens (MRTs) along with your WAVES rewards. For the first 70 blocks that you create in a day, you earn 60 MRT, and 30 MRT for every block you produce after that. MRT is a token created for the Waves platform. You can also exchange it for other tokens in the in-house exchange.

What’s the Market Look Like for WAVES?

As of June 14, 2020, WAVES is going for $1.20, and it ranks at #59. It has a market cap of $122, 385, 397, a 24-hour volume of $35, 098, 740, a circulating and total supply of 102, 199, 780. The token had an all-time high of $18.07 (Dec 19, 2017), and an all-time low of $0.122684. 

Buying and Storing WAVES

You have two ways to acquire WAVES. One is by purchasing it from exchanges such as Binance, Bittrex, YoBit, BitMart, LATOKEN, P2PB2B, BitHumb, Huobi, Kraken, IndoEx, Paribu, and YoBit. While you can do so using Fiat in some of the exchanges, others require you to first purchase a proxy token and swap it for WAVES. The other way is to use the in-house DEX to exchange any of the supported tokens for WAVES. 

For storage, you can use the WAVES’  lite wallet supported on the web, iOS, and Android. It is strongly recommended not to store your funds in an exchange since not only are they in the danger of being hacked, but also you do not have full control over your funds, as it should be. Other options include Trust Wallet, Atomic Wallet, Guarda, and Ledger. 

Final Words

Waves brings the power of the blockchain to the people, providing infinitely easy ways to create your own tokens. Whether you’re looking to create a crowdfund, a simple voting mechanism to decide where to go for a holiday, or a loyalty token for your customers, anything goes. 

Its addition of a smart contract functionality puts it right up with the likes of Ethereum, NEO, and other popular platforms. Individuals can also exchange crypto on Waves in a safer and uncensorable way, all while maintaining their anonymity. If Waves continues adding more value to users this way, the platform will continue to grow in popularity. 

Categories
Forex Course

109. Fractals – Elliot Waves within an Elliot Wave

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

The 5-3 wave pattern is made up of the combination of 5-wave impulsive pattern and a 3-wave corrective pattern. The 5-wave pattern is inclined towards the predominant trend, while the 3-wave pattern is always against the trend. It is basically a pullback to the overall trend.

However, it does not end there. Within each wave in the impulsive and corrective waves, there is a set of other impulsive and corrective waves. And in that each smaller set of impulsive and corrective waves, there exists another miniature set of impulsive and corrective waves. This top-down approach goes on and on, forever.

The Top-down Approach

The Top-down approach can be considered as a synonym for fractals. In the Elliot wave theory, each wave is made of sub-waves and so on. In an uptrend, the 5-wave impulsive pattern faces upside. In these five waves, waves 1, 3, and 5 are towards the overall trend, while waves 2 and 4 against the trend.

In the same uptrend, the corrective wave pattern faces against the trend, where waves A and C face against the trend (downwards), and wave B faces towards the trend (upwards). In this sequence, there are five waves towards the overall trend (with two minor pullbacks) and three against the trend (with one minor pullback).

According to the fractal theory, each push up and push down has the above sequence. For instance, if we extract wave 1 and wave 2, then wave 1 will be made up of a 5-wave impulsive pattern, and wave 2 will be made up of a 3-wave corrective pattern. In conclusion, the combination of two waves (1 and 2) results in a set of 5-3 wave pattern. Refer to the below figure to get a clear understanding.

The Ordering and Labelling of Elliot Waves

We know that every wave can be broken into smaller waves and so on. But referring to these waves becomes the challenging part. So, to make simplify the labeling of these waves, Elliot has assigned a series of categories to the waves in terms of its size (from largest to the smallest).

Conclusion

We saw that every Elliot wave is made up of another miniature Elliot wave, and this break-down goes forever. But, according to Elliot, the degree identification is not a necessary factor in Elliot wave analysis. As a trader, our goal is not to assign the right degree to the wave pattern but to just understand the timeframe in which it is occurring. In the end, all that matters is the basic analysis of the wave theory. The identification of degree always remains secondary. Cheers.

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Categories
Forex Course

108. What Are Corrective Waves & How To Comprehend Them?

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

In the last lesson, we discussed the impulsive waves and 5-wave pattern corresponding to it. A trend is made up of the combination of the 5-wave pattern and the 3-wave pattern. The 5-wave impulsive pattern moves along the original trend, while the 3-wave corrective pattern moves against the trend. In this lesson, we shall discuss the corrective wave and then interpret the 5-3 waves.

Corrective waves

In case of an uptrend, the impulsive waves are towards the upside, and the corrective waves are towards the downside. Continuing with the example mentioned in the previous lesson, the corrective waves are represented in the below figure.

In the above figure, waves a, b, and c represent the corrective waves. The overall trend of the market is up, but corrective waves are against it. In other terms, the 3-wave corrective wave can be considered as pullback for the uptrend.

Note: The 3-wave corrective wave is also referred to as the ABC corrective wave pattern.

Reverse Corrective Wave Pattern

The Elliot wave theory is applicable to both uptrend and downtrend. So, for a downtrend, the impulsive wave faces downwards following the overall trend, while the corrective wave faces upwards. Below is a figure representing the 5-3 wave pattern for a downtrend.

Types of Corrective Wave Patterns

The above illustrated corrective wave is not the only type of corrective wave that occurs. According to Elliot, there are twenty-one 3-wave corrective wave patterns, where some are simple and some complex. However, a trader need not memorize all of them at once. The following are three simple corrective waves that are most occurring in the market.

The Zig-Zag Formation

The zig-zag formations are very steep compared to the regular one and are against the predominant trend. In the three waves, typically, wave B is the shortest compared to wave A and wave C. Note that, the Zig-Zag pattern can happen twice or thrice. Also, the zig-zag patterns, like all other waves, can be broken into 5-wave patterns.

The Flat Formation

As the name suggests, in flat corrective wave patterns, the 3-wave pattern is in the sideways direction. That is, the wave C does not go below wave B, and wave B makes a high as much as wave A. Sometimes, the wave B goes higher than wave A which is acceptable as well.

The Triangle Formation

The Triangle formation is a little different from the other corrective patterns. The difference is that these patterns are made up of 5-waves that move against the overall trend. These corrective waves can be symmetrical, ascending, descending, or expanding.

These were some of the most used corrective patterns used by traders. These must be known to technical traders by default. In the next lesson, we shall discuss another important concept related to the Elliot Wave theory.

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Categories
Forex Course

106. Introduction to Elliot Wave Theory

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Elliot Wave Theory is one of the most popular strategies applied by traders. This theory works exceptionally well if read correctly. In the early 1930s, there was this professional accountant named Ralph Nelson Elliot. He was a stock market expert who analyzed the data of stocks closely for 75 years’ timeframe. He thought that markets move in random chaotic directions but later realized that they don’t. After years of analysis and research, he published a book titled The Wave Principle. This book explained in detail about the theory he had proposed.

Elliot Wave Theory

According to Elliot, the market moves in repetitive cycles. The cause for these cycles is the emotions of mass retail investors, primarily due to psychological factors. It was seen that the upward and downward swings in prices caused by the collective psychology of traders always showed a repetition in the same manner. These swings were referred to as ‘waves.’

So, if traders have a clear understanding of these repetitive cycles, one can predict future price movements. In fact, traders can identify points precisely where the market is going to reverse.

Basic Terminologies

There quite a lot of terms involved in the Elliot Wave Theory. For now, we shall the two most fundamental terms and understand others in the later lessons.

Wave

Elliot proposed that trends are formed as a result of the psychology of investors. He proved that swings formed by this mass psychology were a recurring pattern. And these swings were termed as waves. Elliot’s theory, to an extent, resembles the Dow theory, which also mentions that prices move in ‘waves.’

Fractals

Generally speaking, fractals are structuring whose split parts are like a similar copy of the whole. These structures repeat themselves even on an infinite scale. Apart from individual stocks, Elliot discovered that stock indices showed the same recurring structures. So, he moved to the futures market to analyze if the theory worked there as well.

Predicting the Market with Elliot Waves

Elliot studied the stocks in detail and concluded that predictions could be made using the characteristics of wave patterns. It is known that for a trending market, there is a pullback or correction for it. It is usually said that “what goes up, must come down.” That is, price action is divided into trends and corrections. Trends represent the main direction of the market, while corrections are against the trend.

The Elliot wave theory also uses a similar principle. There is an Impulsive wave that moves in the same directions as the larger/main trend. It always shows five waves in its pattern. Then there is a corrective wave that travels in the opposite direction of the larger trend. On a smaller scale, under each impulsive wave, five other waves can be found again. And such a pattern repeats by going into smaller and smaller scales.

Wondering what the above figure represents? To interpret it, stay tuned for the next lesson.

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