In this tutorial, we’ll explore how you can complete a series of tasks in Orochi Network for Bybit Web3 Airdrop Arcade.

In this tutorial, we’ll explore how you can complete Orochi Network tasks for Bybit Web3 Airdrop Arcade. 

Task 2: Quote Orochi Network's Post and Tag 3 Friends

: Navigate to Orochi Network’s pinned post on X.

: Quote the tweet with your thoughts, and tag 3 friends.

 button at the top right corner of the page.

: The Orochi ID window will pop up. You may choose to sign up for an Orochi ID using your Google account, GitHub or email address.

: Congratulations! You’ve successfully created your Orochi ID. 

Task 4: Join the Contribute to Earn Program

: Connect your Wallet, Google account and Discord to be eligible.

: Once you’ve successfully connected all accounts, you’ll have completed this task.

 all of the four tasks above for your chance to 

Beginner

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How to Complete Orochi Network Tasks for Bybit Web3 Airdrop Arcade

MegaETH is an EVM-compatible blockchain with real-time Web 2.0–level performance. Learn more about MegaETH.

 has long been a formidable challenge for the blockchain industry. Most established chains maintain decentralization and security, but struggle with limited scalability while high-performance 

 (L1) blockchains often compromise decentralization to achieve high throughput. 

What if we could push throughput to unprecedented levels without compromising security or decentralization? 

Enter MegaETH — a project backed by industry leaders such as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin and Dragonfly Capital. With the first real-time 

 (EVM)–compatible chain —i.e., one that can process transactions as soon as they arrive, and then publish the resulting state changes — MegaETH aims to redefine blockchain performance. In this article, we delve into the scaling limitations of current blockchains and examine how MegaETH aims to solve them. Let's dive in!

The blockchain trilemma has posed a significant challenge for 

 developers for years. As Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin explains, distributed ledger networks can only achieve two out of three critical qualities (security, decentralization and scalability) by using simple techniques. 

As a result, most high-performance chains, such as Solana, Avalanche and BNB Chain, often compromise on decentralization or security to achieve scalability.

To address the scalability challenges of L1 networks, developers have introduced 

 (L2) solutions, which operate on top of blockchains such as Ethereum. These L2 chains achieve 

 (TPS) while leveraging the security and decentralization of their underlying L1s. However, according to MegaETH, both high-performance L1 and L2 networks fall short of meeting the demands of Web 2.0–scale applications, particularly in terms of 

As shown in the table above, the blockchain with the highest scalability, opBNB, achieves a gas rate of 100 MGas/s, equivalent to 650 Uniswap swaps or 3,700 

 transfers per second. In comparison, modern databases can 

 over 1 million TPC-C TPS. While Arbitrum One, the fastest chain listed, offers a block time of 0.25 seconds, this remains insufficient for applications requiring rapid feedback or high update rates. 

These limitations in both scalability and speed make current high-performance L1s and L2s ill-suited for Web 2.0 applications with significant computational demands.

 is an EVM-compatible blockchain with real-time Web 2.0–level performance. With the goal of bridging the gap between distributed ledger networks and traditional cloud computing servers, the project aims to push the performance of Ethereum-based L2s to hardware limits. As the first real-time blockchain, MegaETH can stream transactions at 100,000 TPS with transaction fees under $0.01, and provide millisecond-level responsiveness without sacrificing security or decentralization.

MegaLabs, the organization behind MegaETH, was founded in early 2023 by Shuyao Kong and Yilong Li. Holding an MBA from Harvard Business School, Kong has a background in business development within the blockchain industry. Prior to co-founding MegaLabs, she was the global head of business development at ConsenSys, where she continues to serve as an advisor.

As the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MegaLabs, Li has a PhD in computer science from Stanford University. An experienced software developer, he previously worked at Runtime Verification Inc., a firm specializing in software analysis tools and the application of formal methods to improve computing systems.

Together, Kong and Li founded MegaLabs in early 2023 to leverage their business development and computer science expertise to build MegaETH as the first real-time blockchain.

 $20 million of funding in a single seed round at a 9-figure valuation. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with other notable venture capitalists including Figment Capital, Folius Ventures, Robot Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Tangent Ventures and Credibly Neutral. In addition to VCs, MegaETH is backed by high-profile angel investors, such as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin and EigenLayer creator Sreeram Kannan.

 on crypto trader Cobie’s decentralized fundraising platform, Echo. The round was fully funded within minutes and oversubscribed, showing significant investor demand.

MegaETH achieves over 100,000 TPS with less than 1 ms latency and block time, as well as transaction fees under $0.01, via two core features: a heterogenous blockchain architecture and a hyper-optimized EVM execution environment.

MegaETH's heterogeneous blockchain architecture enables network nodes with different hardware configurations to specialize in specific tasks to boost performance.

There are three types of nodes: sequencers, full nodes and provers. With cutting-edge hardware, a small set of sequencers conduct performance-critical tasks such as transaction execution. Simultaneously, a massively decentralized network of full nodes performs security-critical duties such as block validation. Provers have the lowest hardware requirements, and focus on providing L2 proofs to full nodes.

Hyper-Optimized EVM Execution Environment

MegaETH provides a hyper-optimized EVM execution environment to push latency, throughput and resource efficiency to hardware limits. Consequently, the real-time blockchain can process large volumes of transactions as soon as they arrive, and publish the resulting state changes in a few milliseconds.

To enable real-time EVM execution, MegaETH co-designed a low-latency, streaming-based block-building algorithm with a concurrency control protocol supporting transaction prioritization.

MegaETH's real-time blockchain scales without sacrificing decentralization and security through the following key components and features.

 is an extension of the MegaETH core team. It consists of a group of 10x builders hand-picked by MegaETH developers. According to the project, MegaMafia participants have "an internal compass guiding them toward crypto's world domination."

MegaETH defines three common qualities for MegaMafia members:

MegaETH is setting a new standard for blockchain scalability, addressing long-standing limitations without compromising decentralization or security. By combining innovative architectural decisions with technologies like real-time EVM execution, in-memory computing and smart contract JIT compilation, this real-time L1 chain delivers unmatched performance tailored for Web 2.0–scale applications.

Supported by high-profile investors, such as Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin, MegaETH is poised to bridge the gap between blockchain and traditional computing, unlocking new possibilities for decentralized applications. The project is on track to launch its testnet in early 2025, with the mainnet rollout soon thereafter.

Advanced

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MegaETH: A Real-Time Blockchain for Web 2.0–Scale DApps

Grayscale has launched the Horizen Trust, a fund that allows qualified investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency ZEN without the need to buy, store, or safeguard it.

Daily Top Performer — Convex Finance (CVX)

The S&P 500 rose 0.73%, driven by big tech and communication services, as investors anticipate a "Santa Claus Rally" to close the year. Coindesk Indices, an index measuring broader cryptocurrency market performance was up by 1.61%, with Bitcoin dropping by 2.58% and Ether rising by 4.32%, respectively in the past 24 hours.

Today's top performer is CVX, which surged 28.1% following Frax's consideration of BlackRock's BUIDL token as backing for the rebranded frxUSD stablecoin.

Convex Finance (CVX), launched in May 2021, is a DeFi protocol that boosts yields for Curve protocol users on Ethereum. It allows for staking to earn CRV and CVX tokens and provides voting rights on token allocations. Securitize has 

 adding BlackRock's BUIDL token as backing for Frax's rebranded Frax USD (frxUSD) stablecoin, which will feature a new mint-redeem system. Early feedback from Frax DAO members is positive. Competing proposals from Superstate also suggest backing frxUSD with their tokenized funds. The final backing structure is still undecided.

Check Out the Latest Prices, Charts, and Data of 

, a fund that allows qualified investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency ZEN without the need to buy, store, or safeguard it. The fund's shares track the market price of ZEN, net of fees. While the shares have been traded at both a premium and discount, the fund aims to provide a simpler way for investors to gain exposure to ZEN. Grayscale is also expanding its offerings, with plans for a Solana spot ETF.

Yesterday, BTC Spot ETFs recorded total outflows of $258.2 million, including $38.4 million from GBTC and $219.8 million from non-GBTC funds.

, distributing $SONIC tokens to those who participate. Over 2 million users have joined through an easy onboarding process, requiring no wallet setup or gas fees. To qualify for the airdrop, users must log in via TikTok, access SonicX, and wait for the $SONIC claim banner. SonicX, part of the Sonic SVM app layer, uses TikTok ads and creator partnerships to promote its gaming and blockchain education hub. The project aims to expand its TikTok Chain with new games and future token rewards.

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Grayscale Introduces Horizen Trust for ZEN Investment Access

Gems VIP (GEMS) is crypto launchpad uniting leaders to curate top projects, boost growth, and offer rewards via staking, revenue sharing, and exclusive access.

The cryptocurrency industry features over a hundred active launchpad platforms where new projects vie for the attention and funds of early investors. However, many of these launchpads have limited safeguards for investors and offer underwhelming support and growth opportunities for crypto projects launched through them. Investors often fall victim to scam launchpad projects and tokens, while crypto startups fail to raise enough funds from quality backers.

Gems VIP (GEMS) is a crypto launchpad that’s adopted a unique community-driven approach to dealing with both of these problems. It carefully curates projects listed on the platform to ensure that only high-potential, promising tokens are offered to investors. Additionally, Gems VIP has assembled a formidable community of crypto leaders who provide their input on the listed projects and gain access to early sale rounds for their tokens. Besides early access to high-potential tokens, the leaders enjoy additional benefits — 

 in the form of revenue sharing from the launchpad's projects, discounts on the platform's exchange solution, Gems Trade, and staking opportunities for GEMS, the platform's native cryptocurrency.

 (GEMS) is a launchpad supported by a community of leaders in the crypto space. 

The platform features a rigorous curation procedure for listed tokens and provides the community of leaders with access to early sale rounds for these tokens. Gems VIP's community leaders not only 

 via the platform, but also may provide support and expertise to drive their early growth and development.

Gems VIP was launched in late 2023. By December 2024, it had assembled a community of around 3,500 leaders, a number that may grow as the project continues to expand. Gems VIP's native cryptocurrency, GEMS, was launched in June 2024. Leaders can lock a certain minimum amount of GEMS to gain exclusive access to private sale rounds and receive significant discounts during sales.

Platform users, including leaders, who lock at least 5,555 GEMS ($694) become Golden Users, which qualifies them for a 20% discount on the presale round of private sales and a 7% discount on subsequent rounds. To become a Premium Leader and enjoy the full suite of benefits and discounts, leaders need to lock at least 18,000 GEMS (currently around $2,250).

However, you can't simply buy your way into the leader community by purchasing GEMS tokens. Each potential leader is carefully assessed by the project team for suitability. Only individuals deemed as bringing value to the project's potential and its vibrant community are accepted as leaders. Thus, a manipulative 

 who buys up a lot of GEMS tokens in the hope of monopolizing access to private sale rounds will be left disappointed.

The leaders often provide guidance and support to the launchpad's projects, as well as input during the project selection phase. This ensures that the Gems VIP team's expertise is complemented by the leaders' skills when evaluating prospective projects.

Projects selected and launched via Gems VIP enjoy the benefit of being supported by a vast network of leaders and the Gems VIP core team itself. Early investments from community leaders provide much-needed capital to spur the growth of these projects.

There are also certain benefits for other investors (not only the leaders) when buying the projects' tokens in later public rounds or via the secondary market. The curated selection procedure and early backing from astute leaders reduce the risk of investing in scam tokens on the secondary market.

Gems VIP supports promising, innovative crypto startups across a range of 

 (AI). Some of the projects successfully launched via Gems VIP include game development studio Leia Games and AI-powered 

As of late December 2024, the launchpad actively supports its newest key project — an AI-powered crypto trading platform, 

, which provides crypto traders with convenient Telegram access to investment calls and advice from a carefully curated list of key opinion leaders (KOLs).

Gems’ young platform is continuing to develop. Following the introduction of its launchpad service, the platform's next key goal is the launch of its own crypto exchange solution, 

. As of late 2024, Gems Trade is a work in progress. It will serve as a natural evolution of the overall Gems VIP platform by enabling a trade in tokens of the launchpad's projects.

, vault services with an off-chain Stake & Earn program, 

, fiat currency integration and over-the-counter (OTC) trading. Part of the revenue from transaction fees will be channeled to community leaders. In addition to the income from trading activity, the leaders will also earn referral rewards — every time a user referred by a leader transacts on Gems Trade, 50% of transaction fees from their trades will be directed to the referrer for life.

The platform's native cryptocurrency, GEMS, is primarily used to provide exclusive access to early sale rounds for tokens and discounts during the sales. Additionally, GEMS ownership may entitle holders to a share of the revenues generated by the Launchpad's projects.

 built into its tokenomics. All projects launched via Gems VIP are required to allocate 2% of proceeds from the sale of their tokens to purchase GEMS. This applies to each sale round conducted by the project. Fifty percent of the purchased GEMS tokens are locked for one year and then returned to the project, while the remaining 50% are burned to reduce the token's supply.

The GEMS token was launched in June 2024 with a total supply of 843.3 million. As of Dec 23, 2024, the token's total supply is slightly lower — 838.79 million — due to the burn mechanism described above. The token's current market capitalization is $55.45 million, making it the eighth-highest-capped cryptocurrency in the launchpad tokens category.

The initial total supply of 843.3 million GEMS was allocated as shown in the chart below.

 function. Users and leaders can earn competitive APY rates by staking their tokens on the platform. As of Dec 22, 2024, the Gems VIP staking program has an APY rate of around 29%.

There's a mandatory lockup period of 90 days from the date of deposit before you can receive or restake your staking rewards. You can unstake your principal tokens at any time, but will need to wait for seven days before your staked tokens are released back to you.

 as a Perpetual contract based on USDT. You can also join the 

 for the chance to win a share of the 20,000 USDT prize pool. The campaign is split into two events, running through Dec 25, 2024, 10AM UTC. For the first event, with a total prize pool of 5,000 USDT, users who accumulate a trading volume of just $100 via the GEMSUSDT Perpetual contract will have a chance to win a share of the prize pool. The second event is a GEMS PnL Trading Championship, in which the top 50 traders who accumulate a trading volume of at least $50,000 on the contract will qualify for a share of the 15,000 USDT prize pool.

As of Dec 24, 2024, GEMS is trading at $0.125, which is 61% lower than its ATH of $0.32 on Oct 18, 2024, and 350% higher than its ATL of $0.02765 on Aug 5, 2024. Since its launch six months ago, the token has experienced its ups and downs. However, GEMS is up by approximately 121% compared to its initial market price in mid-June 2024, outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) and the overall crypto market during this half-year period.

The Gems VIP team has developed an intriguing concept for running a launchpad. Mobilizing leaders of the crypto world to support new innovative projects is definitely a significant boost for aspiring web3 startups, which often struggle with initial momentum due to lack of both funding and external expertise. The community of leaders plays a vital role in helping early promising projects to overcome initial market resistance. 

For the leaders, the platform is also a viable source for sharing their industry insights, providing tangible help to new web3 initiatives and simultaneously accessing income opportunities through the projects' revenue-sharing commitments.The Gems Launchpad also offers an important benefit for the wider investor community: the platform's rigorous curation process and the support of its leader community ensure a significant reduction in the risk of investing in unsustainable or 

Intermediate

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Gems VIP (GEMS): Where Leaders Drive Projects and Success

Bybit Learn

Tech Deep Dive

From constant outages to heavy VC backing, find out why critics are becoming increasingly concerned with Solana's claims of being decentralized.

Most financial transactions occur based on a centralized model, where a third party has the authority to manage any issues. However, having one party in charge is a double-edged sword, because if that intermediary is compromised, then all client transactions can be impacted. Cryptocurrencies promise to decentralize control of a network so that there’s not one single point of failure. Does this mean that decentralized crypto is immune? And what qualifies as decentralized?

 network suffered another outage — the 12th this year. The blackout shut down the network for four hours and ten minutes, and stopped a potential 975 million transactions from occurring. In a tweet, Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana Labs co-founder, explained the downtime: “As a result of the long nonce instruction, part of the network considered the block invalid, and no consensus could be reached.”

Stability issues on the Solana network caused its value to dip this year, and raised serious questions about the network’s decentralization.

This article examines the issues surrounding the Solana blockchain, and the ways in which its decentralization (or lack thereof) affects the network’s performance.

Blockchain decentralization is a governance system wherein decision-making rights are dispersed across the charge of shareholders or token holders in the majority. It’s designed to keep the network impartial, secure and accessible.

Blockchain decentralization transfers control, decision-making and supervision from a centralized entity, which could be an individual or a group, to a distributed network. The idea of decentralization is to reduce the need for trust among participants, and to lessen their capacity to influence one another to the detriment of the network’s functionality.

Decentralization is what makes the ”permissionless” and “censorship-resistant” qualities of blockchain networks possible. This means that networks can be accessed by all, and anyone can build on them without fear of undue influence or coercion. Decentralization also ensures the security and stability of the network.

The degree to which a blockchain network is decentralized is apparent in the number of distinct groups responsible for validating transactions, the number of developers building on it, and the distribution of the network’s token.

 is a method of measuring the extent of decentralization of a blockchain. It considers the unique properties of blockchain networks to get a more accurate picture of how decentralized a subject network is.

Created in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, Solana was designed to push past the throughput limitations of mainstream blockchains while keeping transaction costs low. It boasts a theoretical throughput of 710,000 transactions per second, an impressive speed achieved through the implementation of a unique hybrid proof of history (PoH) consensus mechanism that utilizes a proof of stake (PoS) synchronization engine.

However, for many industry watchers, the Solana network’s lightning-fast speed comes at a cost — namely, centralization. Despite counterclaims, detractors continue to pile up evidence that Solana lacks decent decentralization. This has caused many to wonder if Solana is truly decentralized. To answer this concern, let's examine some of the factors and unique characteristics of the Solana blockchain that lead to doubts about its degree of decentralization.

In PoS networks, security relies on staked tokens which power transaction validation. Stakers are rewarded with transaction fees and voting power. Currently, about 77.7% of all SOL tokens in circulation are staked. Since the amount of SOL allocated to the public is comparatively small, the majority of these staked SOL will belong to insiders.

Invariably, this small group of insiders wields considerable network validation power, a situation that seems to make a case for the lack of decentralization of the Solana Blockchain. 

Critics have also pointed out that the Solana Foundation is the only entity developing core nodes on the blockchain, making them a central control point and reducing the network’s decentralization. Validator nodes are a key component of a blockchain network, and are primarily responsible for reaching consensus, verifying, and updating transactions.

To understand the impact of the validator node concentration on the Solana network, it’s important to consider the number of operational nodes and who owns them. Solana scored a relatively high Nakamato Coefficient of 19. Out of the current 1,161 validators, the top 19 validators control sufficient staked Solana (and therefore voting power) to launch a coordinated attack on the network — if they wanted to.

Validation on the Solana blockchain has a higher barrier to entry, due to expensive hardware requirements for running a validator node. Since few people can afford the thousands of dollars these high-end computers cost, the Solana network inevitably tilts toward centralization.

The Solana network's decentralization is further reduced by the high amount of SOL a validator needs to break even. According to rough estimates, a validator will have to stake about $1 million worth of SOL just to break even. To ease this burden, the Solana Foundation has subsidized validators who meet specific criteria to the tune of 25,000 SOL. However, this further reduces the network’s decentralization, as it means they choose many of the validators, rather than validators choosing to operate nodes by themselves.

With a $314.2 million investment in Solana Labs (through his trading firm Alameda Research), FTX Chief Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and a few other VCs have a significant stake in the project. This has led to fears of Solana being a venture capitalist-funded project that sacrifices decentralization and security for transaction speed. In fact, the VCs control virtually half of the staked SOL, creating a single point of control that increases vulnerability and detracts from its claim of decentralization.

As previously mentioned, the latest Solana outage was on June 1, 2022, when the network went down yet again due to a bug in the "durable nonce transaction feature," according to Solana Labs developers. Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated event, as the network has been hit with a string of outages. This latest one, which lasted for four-and-a-half hours, was the fifth blackout in 2022 alone. 

Solana developers have always given a reason for each outage, ranging from attackers attempting to overload the network with excess transactions to bots running rampant and bugs in the network’s systems. 

But is there a link between Solana's perceived lack of decentralization and these outages? 

While the outages are likely due to unresolved bugs inherent in the network's novel hybrid consensus mechanism, the ease with which node validators restarted the network after the outages exposed an uncomfortable degree of centralization. 

In circumstances similar to Solana’s network outages, another incident inadvertently exposed the soft, centralized underbelly of the Solana ecosystem. 

Trouble started when the whale risked auto-liquidating the 5.7 million SOL deposited as collateral for a $108 million stablecoin loan — in this case, a mix of USDC and Tether — if the slipping SOL price dropped to $22.30. The forced liquidation threatened to wipe out all of the SOL in the liquidity pool and trigger massive liquidations, potentially crashing the Solana network (again). 

Reacting hastily, the protocol unanimously proposed a solution dubbed “SLND1.” This fix sought to hijack the whale’s account, and strategically liquidate the collateral in an orderly manner, in order to avert another Solana meltdown.

However, the Solend team was forced to rescind the decision — in the face of a strident public outcry that questioned the validity of a vote suspiciously concluded within a mere 24 hours. A protocol that could make such a critical, game-changing move without adequate input from all users still has a lot of decentralizing to do. 

Solana is often referred to as the “Ethereum Killer.” Ethereum, however, is still a more popular blockchain than Solana, behind only Bitcoin.

By several indications, Ethereum proves to be more decentralized than Solana. The first is the percentage of Ethereum insiders who own assets, compared to that of Solana.

According to Messari, a mere 15% of Ethereum tokens are allocated to insiders, and the other 5% are for foundations and incentives. So, in total, 80% is available for public sale. Solana has essentially half of its tokens allocated to insiders.

However, just like Solana, Cardano also falls short of being decentralized in its governance. Both blockchains are still heavily influenced by their parent companies — Solana by Solana Labs, and Cardano by IOHK, a Hong Kong software development company. 

One point where Cardano seems to be more decentralized than Solana, however, is in its validation system. Cardano has over 852,000 delegators on its blockchain, while only about 1,811 validator nodes support Solana. Cardano seems to have made more of an effort to create transparency and decentralization.

Ripple is believed to be heavily centralized, as the project's creators hold the majority of XRP. This means they also have a significant amount of decision-making power. Ripple can easily make changes to its blockchain without a system consensus, as the company has complete access to nodes. Ripple also decides when to create new nodes.

Solana’s 1,811 validators number over twelve times the 150 validators on the Ripple blockchain network.

Investing in SOL is easy. With Bybit, one of the fastest-growing crypto exchanges in the world, you can easily buy, sell, trade, stake and hold SOL. To buy Solana, follow these few easy steps:

Among all other cryptocurrencies tagged as "Ethereum Killers," Solana is one challenger that has vastly improved transaction processing times. However, the network has come under fire for being too centralized. Solana’s string of outages may create renewed motivation to continue improving their network.

Is Solana Decentralized? Outages, VC Ties and More Worries

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