Moonbeam (Glimmer) Investment Value Analysis

Introduction

Moonbeam Network builds a cross-chain connected DApp based on the Polkadot network, provides a smart contract platform compatible with Ethereum, and can easily build local interoperable applications.

Moonbeam has similarities with Plasm. It builds a smart contract platform compatible with Ethereum on Polkadot and serves as a parallel chain of Polkadot to solve the scalability problem of Ethereum.

Moonbeam’s goal is not only to migrate assets across chains, but to build an application layer on Polkadot to reproduce the current Ethereum ecosystem, such as the protocol Uniswap, lending protocol Aave, insurance protocol Cover, etc. When migrating to Polkadot, Its assets will become pUNI, pAAVE, pCOVER.

Moonbeam, like Plasm, achieves compatibility with Ethereum by introducing Frontier. The difference is:

Moonbeam is compatible with Ethereum Layer 1 as much as possible. These measures allow the existing Ethereum contracts to be easily deployed on Moonbeam with only minor changes, without refactoring or rewriting.

But at the same time, because Moonbeam has chosen to inherit all of Ethereum, Moonbeam can only continue to use the old scheme of Ethereum at some points where Substrate has been optimized . This may cause the smart contracts on it to continue to be used by Ethereum. Limitations of thinking, such as excessively large nodes and unreasonable gas mechanisms.

Plasm supports smart contract functions on both Layer 1 and Layer 2 to further improve scalability. Plasm introduced a virtual machine OVM that supports all Layer 2 protocols, and supports many Layer 2 expansion schemes such as Plasma and Lightning Network, so that tokens can be transferred in Layer 2. By introducing Rollups, an extension scheme that supports Layer 2 smart contracts, smart contracts can also be used on Layer 2.

Tokenomics

GLMR (Glimmer) is Moonbeam’s underlying assets, with an annual inflation rate of 5%, and the total supply of Glimmer tokens will be 10 million.

Allocation Details

Fund Raising

In September 2020, Moonbeam development company PureStake completed a $1.4 million seed round of financing. Hypersphere Ventures led the investment, followed by Arrington XRP Capital, HashKey, KR1, Bitcoin.com Exchange and Du Capital. The funds were mainly used to accelerate the development of the Moonbeam network.

Hypersphere Ventures is a venture capital company focused on Polkadot. Partner Robert Habermeier is also the co-founder of the Polkadot network.

Practical Value Analysis

Reasons behind GLMR buys:

1. Gas metering fee paid by smart contract
2. On-chain governance, such as elections and voting
3. On-chain transaction fees

Reasons behind GLMR sells:

1. Unlocking cash out of financing
2. Possible unlocked cash out for teams, consultants, partners and early contributors

According to Moonbeam’s official line, GLMR has an annual inflation rate of 5%, but 80% of transaction costs will be burned and 20% will be used for fiscal reserves.