Ethereum

Ethereum PoS, or Proof of Stake, is a consensus mechanism that maintains blockchain security through ETH staking and validators. Validators lock ETH to qualify for proposing new blocks and verifying transactions, receiving rewards or penalties based on their network behavior. After The Merge upgrade, Ethereum officially transitioned from PoW, or Proof of Work, to PoS. Compared with the traditional mining model, PoS significantly reduces energy consumption and lays the foundation for future Layer 2 scaling and Ethereum’s long term economic model.

Parallelized EVM is an EVM architecture that allows non-conflicting transactions to execute simultaneously. Its goal is to break through the performance limits of the traditional sequential execution model while improving blockchain throughput and real-time interaction capabilities. As DeFi, blockchain games, and high-frequency on-chain applications continue to develop, parallel execution is becoming an important optimization direction for high-performance public blockchains.

OKB, BNB, and GT are all exchange tokens issued by cryptocurrency trading platforms, so users often compare them side by side. Although all three offer functions such as trading fee discounts, ecosystem incentives, and platform benefits, they differ significantly in their on-chain ecosystems, tokenomics, burn mechanisms, and broader platform strategies. BNB places greater emphasis on public chain and multichain ecosystem expansion; OKB focuses more on coordination between the trading platform and Web3 infrastructure; and GT develops around the trading platform ecosystem, on-chain assets, and the GateChain network.

X Layer is a Layer2 network launched by OKX to improve blockchain transaction efficiency, reduce on-chain costs, and expand the Web3 application ecosystem. Built on Polygon CDK and compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), it allows developers to migrate or deploy on-chain applications more easily. At the same time, OKB is gradually taking on a role in ecosystem coordination and on-chain application connectivity within the X Layer ecosystem.

Impermanent loss is a form of asset value divergence that Uniswap liquidity providers, or LPs, may face when supplying liquidity. When the prices of assets in a liquidity pool change, the actual value of an LP’s holdings may become lower than if they had simply held the assets. This loss mainly comes from the AMM mechanism and the changing ratio of assets in the pool. The greater the price movement, the more noticeable impermanent loss usually becomes. Although LPs can earn trading fees, fee income may not fully offset potential losses in highly volatile markets.

UNI is the governance token of the Uniswap protocol, used for community governance, protocol upgrade proposals, and on-chain voting. UNI holders can take part in key decisions related to the protocol’s direction, treasury use, and fee mechanisms. Unlike the platform tokens of traditional trading platforms, UNI focuses more on decentralized governance than trading discounts or profit sharing. Through its on-chain governance mechanism, the Uniswap community can advance protocol upgrades and ecosystem expansion without control from a centralized institution.

Uniswap v4 is the next-generation upgrade of the Uniswap protocol. Through Hooks, custom liquidity pools, and Singleton architecture, it strengthens the programmability of DeFi protocols and improves liquidity management capabilities. Compared with v3, v4 allows developers to add more custom functions to trading, liquidity management, and fee logic.

Uniswap is an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange protocol that enables on-chain token trading without an order book through an automated market maker, or AMM, mechanism. Users can swap assets by interacting directly with liquidity pools, without relying on a centralized intermediary platform.

Starknet (STRK) is a Layer2 scaling network built on Ethereum. It mainly uses ZK Rollup, or zero knowledge Rollup, technology to improve transaction processing efficiency and reduce gas costs on the mainnet. Unlike executing every transaction directly on Ethereum’s main chain, Starknet first completes large amounts of transaction computation on Layer2, then submits the results back to Ethereum for verification through zero knowledge proofs.

Starknet’s core goal is to improve on-chain transaction processing efficiency without compromising Ethereum’s security. It uses Zero Knowledge Proof technology to execute a large number of transactions on Layer2, then submits the proof results back to the Ethereum mainnet for verification, reducing the burden on the main chain.

Starknet is a Layer2 scaling network built on Ethereum. Its core goal is to increase blockchain transaction throughput and lower usage costs while inheriting Ethereum’s security. As the Ethereum mainnet has increasingly faced higher gas fees and network congestion, more Layer2 networks have begun exploring different technical approaches to the scaling problem. Starknet is one of the most representative ZK Rollup networks among them.

dYdX and Hyperliquid are both order book-based DEXs focused on on-chain perpetual futures trading, so they are often compared with each other. Although both emphasize a high-performance trading experience and low-latency matching, they differ significantly in their underlying chain structure, degree of decentralization, liquidity sources, and governance models. dYdX uses an appchain architecture built on the Cosmos SDK and secures its network through PoS validator nodes, while the DYDX token is used for both governance and staking. Hyperliquid, by contrast, uses a self-developed high-performance chain structure and places greater emphasis on ultra-low-latency trading and a unified liquidity experience.

Order book DEXs and AMMs are both widely used for on-chain asset trading, but they differ clearly in how prices are formed, how liquidity is structured, and how trades are executed. An order book DEX matches trades through buy and sell orders placed by users, while an AMM relies on liquidity pools and algorithms for automatic pricing.

dYdX (DYDX) is a decentralized derivatives protocol focused on perpetual contract trading. Through an independent appchain built on the Cosmos SDK, it provides users with a non-custodial, high-performance on-chain trading experience. Unlike traditional AMM-based DEXs, dYdX uses an order book model and off-chain matching mechanism, making it better suited to high-frequency trading and professional derivatives markets.

ETHGas and the traditional Ethereum Gas Market both manage blockchain transaction resources, but differ significantly in blockspace allocation, gas pricing, and confirmation logic. Learn how ETHGas compares with Ethereum’s traditional gas market model.