Cronos (CRO): Overview and Examples in Cryptocurrency

What Is Cronos (CRO)?

CRO is the native token of the blockchain designed by CRO Protocol Labs, also known as Crypto.com. It is a company that provides an all-in-one decentralized finance application and exchange. You can buy and sell crypto, stake your crypto and earn with it, collect all of your crypto in one wallet, and much more.

Learn more about Cronos (CRO), Crypto.org, Crypto.com, and how to get CRO.

Understanding Cronos (CRO)

Originally Monaco, Crypto.com rebranded itself in 2018. It is an all-inclusive financial platform that offers cryptocurrency trading services through an exchange, payment services through an app and a Visa card, decentralized finance options, and non-fungible tokens. The company also has its own cryptocurrency, CRO, used in its blockchain to power its applications.

CRO is not minable because of the design, protocols, and consensus mechanism used. CRO can be purchased on Crypto.com's exchange; however, access to the exchange is not yet available to U.S. residents.

Crypto.com was created with the vision of providing cryptocurrency access to everyone by attempting to accelerate the world's transition to cryptocurrency. To do this, the founders envisioned a platform that meets the decentralized needs of investors, traders, consumers, and businesses. They decided that a platform that offered these services would be best served with its own blockchain rather than creating a fork of an existing one.

The original cryptocurrency the company created was MCO, for its name Monaco. After rebranding to CRO ProtocolLabs (Crypto.com), the company changed its coin's symbol to CRO. Its cryptocurrency is designed to be used within its own blockchain.

Crypto.com offers five categories of services, which it calls verticals:

• Payment: Crypto.com Pay, Visa Card
• Trading: Crypto.com App and exchange
• Financial Services: Decentralized products, earnings, and credit
• Metaverse: NFT
• Blockchain Infrastructure: Crypto.org Chain (blockchain), Cronos
  

Crypto.org Chain, Crypto.com's blockchain, uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism called Tendermint. Five billion CRO were initially allocated for reward distribution, and new blocks are created about every five seconds.

How Is Cronos (CRO) Different From Ethereum (ETH)?

Ethereum and Crypto.com have one similarity—they are both designed with a native token that supports many functions throughout its environment. However, that's where the similarities end, and the differences begin.

First, Crypto.com is a company that designed its own closed-source blockchain for the purpose of offering several decentralized financial services through one provider and platform. Ethereum is intended to be built upon by anyone and is open source, allowing anyone to view the programming, suggest changes, or create their own products.

Second, Crypto.com's purpose is different than Ethereum's because it is a company providing financial services—in this aspect, it is centralizing a concept that by design was supposed to be decentralized. Ethereum, the global virtual machine, is fully decentralized. The Crypto.org blockchain and its supporting Cronos chain run on the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Third, Crypto.com's services provide convenience for cryptocurrency fans and users who want to have all their digital transactions and assets in one place. While this is centralized, it is not inherently a bad thing. Not everyone is comfortable using different exchanges to convert their cryptocurrency or wants to have several different wallets and needs to move assets back and forth. Crypto.com provides nearly everything an average person needs to become involved in cryptocurrency and decentralized finance.

Goals of CRO

According to Crypto.com's mission and vision statements, its overall mission is to "Accelerate the World's Transition to Cryptocurrency" by providing people with digital financial services. With access to a broad spectrum of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related products and services, Crypto.com believes it will lead the charge toward Web3, which is theoretically going to be built on blockchain technology and use cryptocurrency.

Crypto.com's native blockchain token, CRO, is designed to facilitate transactions using its custom blockchain. CRO is used to pay transaction fees and can be staked to become a validator to earn token rewards.

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