Waves is a blockchain platform that serves various purposes and supports such use cases as decentralized applications and smart contracts. Established in June 2016, the network held one of the earliest ICOs (initial public offerings) on the cryptocurrency market. The blockchain was created by Ukrainian scientist Alexander Ivanov. Before founding the network, he released Coinomat, an instant exchange that doesn’t exist now, and the indexing site Cooleindex. He also created an early version of CoinoUSD, a stablecoin tied to the US dollar rate.
The platform is based on WavesNG, a modified proof-of-stake algorithm. The algorithm is developed on a scaling protocol Bitcoin-NG. Waves claims that its code is open source. Therefore, it provides more trust and ease of maintenance.
The initial aim of the project was an increase in speed, utility, and user experience of the first blockchain platforms. Later, the company developed a cross-chain and oracle network, Gravity, as well as the DeFi-focused platform Neutrino. There is a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange, Waves DEX.
The blockchain has a native token, WAVES, used for standard payments, including block rewards. Its supply isn’t limited. Although, at the time of the release, the token was announced to have a supply of 100 million tokens only, the limit was removed in 2019.
At the same time, network participants were granted decision-making rights. Today, the participants can vote on whether to decrease the block rewards. The reduction equals 0.5 WAVES every 110,000 blocks.
In 2020, WAVES became an ERC-20 standard asset. As a result, the Waves platform is interoperable with the Ethereum network.
You can trade the WAV/USD pair on the LiteFinance platform as a CFD. CFD trading allows you to open a position no matter how high the WAVES to USD rate is.
Risk warning: Trading in FX and CFDs entails high risk of losing capital.
