WAX Blockchain (WAXP): A Carbon-Neutral NFT Blockchain

WAX Blockchain is a web3 ecosystem for gaming and NFTs. Since its inception, the blockchain has attracted a loyal following that includes more than 13 million WAX accounts and $23 million in daily transactions.

The following is a brief guide describing WAX Blockchain to help you determine if the project is worth your investment.

What Is WAX Blockchain?

WAX, or Worldwide Asset eXchange, is a carbon-neutral design for e-commerce transactions. It's specifically known for trading digital assets.

WAX blockchain is hyperfocused on video games and virtual collectibles. As a result of continuous innovation in the field, it has become one of the most recognizable web3 ecosystems to provide everything a brand needs to launch a successful NFT collection. In fact, it is the most used and transacted blockchain ecosystem in the world of NFTs, DApps and video games.

To optimize the blockchain's e-commerce usability, it uses a delegated proof of stake (DPoS) mechanism that’s compatible with EOSIO. This combination of DPoS and EOSIO compatibility helps the blockchain achieve greater speed and scalability.

Currently, the platform supports over 30,000 useful DApps and marketplaces for gaming and NFTs. Its rapid development is primarily due to the backing of the parent company, OPSkins, which was previously a leading global brand for buying and selling digital items.

It's commonly believed that OPSkins has been the primary driver for the trust that numerous high-profile gaming brands — such as Atari, Mattel, SAW and Street Fighter — have placed in WAX blockchain to promote their digital assets within the virtual gaming ecosystem.

History of WAX Blockchain

The WAX Blockchain project was conceived by William E. Quigley and Jonathan Yantis in 2015. Their goal was to offer a blockchain where anyone could create, buy, sell and trade virtual items.

By 2017, the concept had attracted top gaming companies, giving these brands a stable blockchain environment in which to launch their NFT collections. Amid rising demand, some of the most prolific NFT creators and game developers pitched in with award-winning video games and DApps, which contributed to the remarkable growth. In a short period, WAX blockchain had established itself as the "King of NFTs.”

In early 2020, WAX reached the 10 million–user milestone, which it celebrated by airdropping a similar number of NFTs. At the time, the airdrop was almost ten times larger than any other NFT airdrop in history. This event was followed by the distribution of William Shatner's memorabilia to the public. According to the official source, the demand for William's memorabilia was so high that his 125,000 digital photographs were sold within nine minutes of the launch.

In mid-2020, the launch of the Alien Worlds metaverse on WAX was another major event in the virtual gaming industry. Dubbed as the number one, most-played blockchain game on earth, the easy-to-use space exploration game utilizes many of the prominent features of the WAX ecosystem.

The innovation continues to this day. For instance, vIRL NFTs are one of the most celebrated products on the WAX blockchain, offering physical ownership of assets without the need for delivery. The NFT is tied to an actual physical asset. You can own it, transfer the ownership or redeem it for the physical item.

vIRL NFTs are unique because they offer a host of dynamic functionality that includes app-video game integrations, marketing tools and V-commerce capabilities. In addition, each one of these NFTs is minted on the carbon-neutral blockchain that puts the environment first, creating carbon offset NFTs.

How Does WAX Blockchain Work?

Worldwide Asset eXchange uses a DPoS consensus algorithm which relies on a group of block producers to manage the block production. These block producers are known as WAX Guilds.

A block is produced every thirty seconds on the WAX blockchain. Only one WAX Guild is authorized to produce a particular block at any given time. To improve efficiency, each WAX Guild has a specific time in which it can produce the block. After the scheduled time, the block is skipped. To prevent block skipping, the blockchain doesn't reward WAX Guilds that only produce 50% or less of their scheduled blocks.

To increase community participation in the selection of WAX Guilds, the WAX blockchain uses a tokenomic model which enables community members to stake, receive rewards and vote. If you have WAXP tokens in your wallet, you can connect a compatible wallet to the Ethereum bridge and convert those WAXP tokens to WAXE. Deposit both WAXE and ETH tokens into the WAXE-ETH liquidity pool in order to earn WAXE-ETH liquidity pool tokens. 

You can then proceed to stake your WAXE-ETH liquidity pool tokens in exchange for WAXG tokens and ETH rewards. These WAXG tokens can be used to vote, but you can also burn them to receive more ETH from the PiggyBank Pool in exchange.

To avoid double-spending, WAX uses Byzantine fault tolerance technology. It prevents WAX Guilds from signing two blocks at the same block height or timestamp. Anyone signing two blocks is punished and suspended by WAX token holders.

Besides relying on DPoS consensus, the WAX blockchain uses a combination of smart contracts and the WAX Random Number Generator. The RNG is used by DApp developers to introduce a random outcome for an asset. This helps solve the problem associated with traditional RNGs, which often suffer from unfair and nonrandom values.

Features of the WAX Blockchain

WAX is a web3 ecosystem for gaming and NFTs. It offers everything that a brand needs to launch a successful NFT collection. For developers, the native WAX Developer Hive provides full documentation, quickstarts and code samples. For players, the blockchain is a convenient way to take charge of both their old and new digital assets.

Here are a few additional reasons why you can trust the WAX ecosystem.

Carbon-Neutral

The Worldwide Asset eXchange is a certified carbon-neutral blockchain. This is a distinction, because WAX is almost 66,454 times more energy efficient than Bitcoin. In numerical terms, WAX mainnet uses 473.04 MWh and emits 211 tons of carbon dioxide per year, which is only a tiny fraction of what a traditional blockchain emits.

Blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum rely on the proof of work (PoW) consensus. As the value of BTC and ETH rise, users rely on hefty mining rigs. This heated competition produces energy equal to emissions from mid-sized nations.

Luckily, the carbon-neutral WAX blockchain produces less than 0.01 percent carbon emissions as compared to ETH or BTC. The resulting carbon credits are used to support a variety of green projects around the world. Already, WAX NFTs have helped offset almost 4 million tons of carbon emissions as compared to Ethereum.

Delegated Proof of Stake Consensus Mechanism

WAX blockchain uses a DPoS consensus mechanism, which is a combination of PoW and PoS. In the DPoS environment, you can delegate your coins to others and give them the power to validate transactions. This voting power is weighted on a proportional scale, relative to the number of tokens. With this setup, you don't need to battle for computing dominance because the energy consumption on the WAX blockchain is relatively stable.

WAX Cloud Wallet

WAX Cloud Wallet is a handy feature because it doesn’t require you to manage private keys, and can be accessed on both mobile devices and desktops. Apart from the obvious functions of sending and receiving funds, it can be used to store collectibles in a single place. You can also connect the WAX Cloud Wallet to decentralized applications (DApps). The dashboard’s controls help you stake your holdings and vote for WAX Guilds.

WAX Labs

WAX Labs is a funding source where WAX pioneers and visionaries bring ideas to life. Anyone can pitch a business plan; you just need to draft a proposal for review. If you have a plan, make sure your submission includes all the documents, ideas and detailed information that will let voters thoroughly evaluate the project's feasibility.

Once the plan is submitted, everyone has the right to vote on the project. The more WAX tokens an individual has staked, the more weight their vote carries. For your project to get funding, 10% of the registered voters must vote, and half of the voters need to agree on the proposal. At any given moment, the admin has the right to give a proper reason for denial, which then terminates the project.

WAX Block Explorer

WAX Block Explorer provides records of individual transactions on the WAX blockchain.

When introduced in 2018, the WAX Block Explorer processed more transactions than any other blockchain. It’s also the first user-friendly blockchain to let users view transactions in a visual format. Its 3D interactive features will let you make sense of data without needing to worry about technical terms.

If you own an NFT, you can also view its 3D rendering along with ownership details, transaction records and related data.

WAX NFTs

WAX has introduced the world's first carbon-neutral NFTs. Just like traditional NFTs, these vIRL NFTs are linked to physical objects. However, they're carbon offset vIRL NFTs — because when you redeem one, the National Forest Foundation plants one tree sapling for every $1 spent on NFTs. This initiative ties in with the aim of WAX Blockchain to reduce its carbon footprint until it achieves carbon negative status, having already achieved carbon neutrality.

WAX NFTs are sold on both primary and secondary marketplaces, with the majority sold on secondary marketplaces. AtomicHub, Collectibles.io and Myth.Market are just a few of the many secondary marketplaces where you can purchase WAX vIRL NFTs with WAX tokens.

While NFTs on primary marketplaces are limited, they're usually sold within minutes of the launch. Therefore, keep an eye on upcoming sales on the official social media channels. You can use the native WAX token or your credit card to purchase NFTs on the primary marketplace.

DApps

WAX blockchain is a purpose-built, energy efficient environment for building and deploying high-performance DApps. If you're a developer, use the Developer Hive to access in-depth tutorials, quickstart guides, samples and API references for product development.

WAX blockchain is fully compatible with EOSIO smart contracts. This means that you can deploy your EOSIO DApps on the WAX mainnet. You're also entitled to free blockchain accounts and cheaper gas fees.

Governance

As mentioned briefly, there are three variants of the WAX coin: WAXP, WAXG and WAXE.

WAXP is the protocol's utility token, while WAXE is the Ethereum ERC-20 version. The latter can be converted into WAXP at a ratio of 1,000 WAXP to 1 WAXE.

In contrast, WAXG is the platform’s governance token, earned by staking WAXE. It's given to those who stake their WAXE-ETH in the WAX-ETH liquidity pool. As mentioned above, you can either use WAXG to participate in voting activities or burn them to receive ETH.

WAX Blockchain Road Map

The WAX Advisory Council is responsible for creating a future road map. Its members include executives from Atari, Unity, Marvel and other prominent software companies. Members of the council offer their input on development goals.

WAX Blockchain’s road map is subject to change amid new developments. The most recent road map and updates are usually posted on the official website. In the past, the team has published yearly updates.

Some recent developments from the 2021 road map include partnering with Capcom, and the development of an Ethereum bridge to support altcoins. Accordingly, the team is actively working on making improvements to the WAX Cloud Wallet, completing existing DeFi projects and supporting upgraded variants of ERC tokens.

WAXP Tokenomics

The WAX tokenomics model is a hybrid between WAX and Ethereum blockchains, as it aims to use the best features of both chains. This configuration helps WAX token holders because they can benefit from WAX's success in the NFT marketplace and Ethereum's success in the DeFi space.

The inter-blockchain design maintains the WAX blockchain as its core element. For instance, NFT operations, such as creating and trading digital assets, take place on WAX. However, any capital generated from NFT commercial activities is transferred to a growing network of financial services available in the Ethereum ecosystem. While WAX hasn’t surpassed Ethereum in terms of NFT trading activity, NFT growth on WAX is substantial in terms of their original plans.

WAXP Price Prediction

WAXP is the native token of WAX. As of mid-2022, the token is trading at around $0.10. In November 2021, during the recent crypto frenzy, it touched $0.90. Since then, the price has plummeted to follow the price trajectory reflecting existing trends in the crypto market.

According to DigitalCoinPrice, its price will likely reach $0.23 by 2023. In the long term, you can expect a steady rise every year. The team at Gov Capital Investor is also optimistic, anticipating the price to go beyond $4 by 2027.

Where to Buy WAXP

WAXP is listed on a variety of crypto exchanges around the world, including Bybit. If you're interested in the project, here’s how you can buy it on Bybit’s exchange.

Step 1: Create an account on the official Bybit website.

Step 2: After registering, purchase WAXP using USDT as the base currency. The Bybit platform offers multiple ways to buy USDT so that you can exchange it for WAXP.

Step 3: To buy USDT, click Buy Crypto on top of the Bybit platform. From the drop-down menu, select One-Click Buy or pick a payment method of your choice. You can buy USDT, the base currency, using a credit card, bank transfer, crypto exchange or P2P. If you have USDT in another wallet, you may also transfer it to the Bybit exchange.

Step 4: After buying USDT, it's time to swap it for WAXP. To exchange USDT for WAXP, click on Trade on the top menu and pick Spot Trading. You can either search for WAXP, or click on this link to go directly to the WAXP/USDT Spot Trading page.

Step 5: Select the amount of WAXP you want, and click on Buy. 

Is WAX Blockchain a Good Investment?

Compared to many other high-profile crypto projects, WAX Blockchain is a thriving ecosystem that has achieved greater milestones than many of its famous counterparts. In just five years, it’s garnered support from thousands of NFT followers and well-known gaming brands.

If everything goes according to plan, WAX Blockchain will have established a practical framework for future projects. It has solid foundations, a great team, a workable road map, strong fundamentals and utility. Its carbon-neutral NFTs is an industry-first initiative likely to contribute to its notoriety.

If you're looking for a well-established blockchain that has yet to reach its full potential, WAX is a solid investment.

Closing Thoughts

When it comes to gaming, NFTs and digital assets, few blockchains can rival WAX. While its initial success has been mainly attributed to the delivery of brand-partnered NFT content, the new road map has gained momentum from WAX’s partnership with Ethereum and from a growing community of DApp developers. At the moment, WAX is the most prominent web3 ecosystem for digital assets, and there are plenty of sufficient reasons to invest in WAXP.