About Moonriver (MOVR)

To understand MOVR, native token of Moonriver, it helps to know the extensive lineup of relevant related projects.

There’s the layer-1 blockchain, Ethereum – you’ve probably heard of it.

Then there’s the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It’s a developer sandbox and where smart contracts are deployed in the creation of decentralized applications ("dApps"); these are what facilitate decentralized finance (“DeFi”) activities, including decentralized trading, staking, borrowing, lending, etc.

Which brings us to Moonbeam, an EVM-compatible smart contract platform. It runs on Polkadot. Moonbeam, as it turns out, has a more experimental, community-led sister network: Moonriver.

An EVM-compatible parachain, Moonriver runs on Polkadot's canary network, Kusama. (We told you there were a lot of moving parts).

Layer-1 EVM-compatible blockchains have long confronted scalability issues. Unresolved congestion on the Ethereum network continues to underscore these limitations. A testing ground that intends to retain a life of its own, the Moonriver ecosystem inherently finds itself on the front lines of the effort to scale up layer-1 EVM-compatible blockchains, while complementing Moonbeam.

Moonriver’s community of developers, banding together, has propelled it ahead, taking up initiatives (raising $40 million) in the pursuit to win the second-ever Kusama parachain auction.

As a permanently incentivized canary network of Polkadot-based Moonbeam, Moonriver works collaboratively with its sister network to allow developers to create and deploy smart contracts and dApp front-end offices intended for Ethereum, essentially migrating Ethereum technology to the Polkadot network, but with minimal cost. Addressing the issues that have arisen within the layer-1 blockchain ecosystem, Moonriver is regarded as another addition to the Ethereum-killer brigade “mirroring” Ethereum technology with EVM compatibility. But Moonriver goes beyond typical EVM implementation expectations, as stated by Moonriver themselves. Boasting an “Ethereum-like environment,” Moonriver enables dApp projects already operating on Ethereum to replicate and deploy using familiar tools such as Hardhat, Truffle, Remix, among others.

Moonriver has already begun to accommodate over 3,000 respective tokens and projects. The parachain reached a milestone this past November of 2021 by hitting eight million transactions on its network, becoming the leading parachain in Kusama, according to CryptoPotato.

Built upon a multi-faceted, tiered system, Moonriver relies upon DeFi integrations, unified accounts, Web3 RPC, and EVM technology to bridge its own ecosystem with the likes of Chainbridge, Ren, Interlay, Snowfork, and Exelar. With unification prioritized, Moonriver has similarly established bridges with various DeFi protocols to inject further momentum into its cause, as well as those introduced by various projects built on the blockchain.

According to Cryptoslate, in order to mitigate risks within the Moonbeam infrastructure, all new code is passed onto Moonriver first, where it is subjected to trial by fire, and verified under strict economic conditions, but without the burdensome financial pressures of Polkadot. This in turn increases the governance stability of Moonbeam and the experimentalism of Moonriver.

As with any smart-contract-orientated platform, it cannot exist without the integral support of a native token, MOVR. Among the token’s roles: supporting the gas metering of smart contract execution; incentivizing collators, facilitating on-chain governance tasks; and funding transaction costs.  

 Moonriver was conceived by Derek Yoo, a former CPO for Fuze. Yoo has extensive experience across product management, and systems engineering, which led to the birth of the infrastructure-as-a-service specialist firm Purestake and subsequent development initiatives, Moonbeam and its sister Moonriver. Playing a pivotal role in realizing a multi-chain future, Purestake, and the Moonbeam Foundation have worked in tandem under Yoo, following the community focused crowd loan initiative in June 2021, to deliver on a multi-chain vision for DeFi.

With both Moonriver and Moonbeam having identical coding, it is anticipated that Moonriver will later evolve to serve specific use cases that its sister network is unable to accommodate, according to a blog post released by Moonbeam as development began.

Its launch process was divided into four stages. Moonriver as of August 2021 had entered its final stage, enabling full functionality across all areas of the network, as well as distributing crowd loan participation rewards for the 5,977 contributors. The developer-friendly design and implementation of Moonriver have made it a destination for dozens of new and established dApps alike, Cointelegraph said.

In late January 2022, Moonriver announced an alliance with 123Swap, a decentralized financial ecosystem that enables the swapping of crypto assets between peers. 123Swap will integrate Moonriver’s smart contract platform into its decentralized, non-custodial cross-chain architecture, part of an effort to shake up DeFi industry by capitalizing on the “untapped power of cross-chain technology,” according to a 123Swap public statement.

The current price of MOVR

As of early February of 2022, MOVR was $109. For a few weeks, it traded within the bounds of $80-90 following a plunge in the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum and many other digital assets.

Moonriver attracted attention following its explosive entry into the market in August of 2021, entering at a modest $83.79 before soaring to record high of about $495 within its first two weeks of deployment, according to CoinGecko. It has declined by 78% since then.

How the price of MOVR is determined

The total supply of MOVR tokens is 10 million, with a yearly inflation rate of 5%. MOVR has a strict token allocation outlined in its white paper.

MOVR’s token supply is strictly dedicated to preserving its community ethos. Some 40% is dedicated to community initiatives and parachain slot reserve funds; 30% is for the parachain crowd loan; 24.5% goes to long-term network stewardship and adoption; 4.5% goes to a developer adoption program; 0.5% to treasury; and a further 0.5% designated for parachain bond reserves.

All MOVR earned through transaction fees are utilized to support the network and its holders, with 80% of tokens burned and the remaining 20% delegated to the treasury.

What the bulls are saying about Moonriver (MOVR)

• According to CoinMarketCap, the price of the MOVR token…is showing bullish signs, and may end up “exploding” anytime.
• Once Moonriver ended up on Kusama, the expectation was that MOVR would soar, said InvestorPlace.
• “Smart contracts will have to scale across the blockchain boundaries…Moonriver and Moonbeam stand at the forefront of such landscape shifts in the Polkadot ecosystem,” said Xiaohan Zhu, founder of Meter, a bridge blockchain on which MOVR has deployed, per Cointelegraph.

What the bears are saying about Moonriver (MOVR)

• The MOVR token has a daily flag pattern. This pattern usually indicates that an upside breakout is in the offing, but the trend will likely remain bearish, said Anthony Gonzales on behalf of ownsnap.
•  The general Moonriver price prediction sentiment is neutral, with 14 technical analysis indicators signaling bullish signals, and 9 signaling bearish signals, stated a Coincodex analysis.
• “Our price prediction model is bearish for the next 90 days with a hint of a bull market at the turn of quarters from Q1 to Q2,” said Captainaltcoin.