Ankr (ANKR)
4 minutes
Beginner
The Ankr ecosystem, described on its website as "the only platform that combines node infrastructure, staking, and decentralized finance (DeFi) to facilitate development and earning," combines two important (and quite broad) elements in the crypto world: Web3 and DeFi.
The network was founded in November 2017 by Chandler Song, Ryan Fang, and Stanley Wu. It is built on the Ethereum blockchain and secured by a global distributed network of nodes. Song, who resides in California, is currently the CEO of Ankr. Prior to founding Ankr, he worked as an engineer at Amazon Web Services. Fang, who also lives in California, is the second co-founder and was previously an investment banker. Wu, the third co-founder, is the CTO of Ankr. A former senior software engineer at Amazon, Wu studied database management at the University of California, Berkeley, where Song and Fang also lived previously.
They all came to the early idea of Ankr after realizing how they could disrupt the cloud computing market, making it more democratic and secure through the use of blockchain technology.
What is Web3?
The Web3 movement is primarily focused on making the benefits of blockchain technology mainstream. The ultimate goal of Web3 is to incorporate decentralized blockchain technology into virtually every industry.
DeFi is a decentralized financial system that will allow Web3 to be fully realized. Digital currency will be integrated into the infrastructure.
On its own website, Ankr states about the future of Web3: "The next phase of the Internet is built on distributed networks that make a new generation of platforms, applications, and services more private, secure, reliable, and resistant to censorship. By eliminating intermediaries, developers and users regain control over their applications and data."
How does Ankr work?
Ankr offers its users a number of distinctive features.
Ankr platform users can deploy nodes on Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchains more easily and at a lower cost. Expensive equipment and technical expertise requirements prevent most people from setting up nodes and receiving rewards. With Ankr, users can create nodes with just a few clicks and gain access to dozens of blockchains. In exchange, node operators pay Ankr a monthly subscription fee.
However, the cloud computing element is where the ecosystem becomes truly exciting. The network creates a system in which cloud computing providers rent out resources that are not currently in use to users who require cloud infrastructure. Companies that agree to rent out their software resources are rewarded with ANKR tokens. Historically, the cloud computing market has been fully monopolized by a few large companies. By providing access, Ankr aims to level the playing field and reduce losses. This makes it a much more resilient alternative.
By disrupting the centralization of the cloud computing sector, the ANKR cryptocurrency also aims to make the industry more secure. Decentralized cloud computing networks are less resilient than centralized ones, as in the former case, the risk of failure is distributed, whereas in the latter, there is one or a few points of failure if, say, power goes out at certain locations.
Steaking
The unique way in which the Ankr (ANKR) ecosystem allows users to stake coins is also an important feature of the cryptocurrency network.
Ankr's StakeFi product allows investors to stake with much less money compared to Ethereum's blockchain. Typically, staking in the Ethereum network requires 32 ETH. Meanwhile, users can participate in ANKR staking with just 0.5 ETH.
Staking with lower levels of ETH has become possible because the platform uses synthetic derivatives to reduce the amount of capital that participants need to contribute. This feature further democratizes the playing field of the crypto industry, allowing more people to participate.
ANKR
ANKR cryptocurrency has many different features and is available on several exchanges including: Binance, MEXC, BingX, Bybit.
First and foremost, cloud computing providers are compensated for renting out their underutilized software to the Ankr platform. ANKR can be used to pay for certain products, including node deployment and application programming interface (API) services. This also allows users to participate in governance and influence the future of the ecosystem.
Economic data of the project at the time of writing:
Volume in circulation: 8,162,899,377
Maximum volume: 10,000,000,000
Market capitalization: $237,942,243
TVL: $190,489,468
Price: $0.029
CoinGecko.com data
