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This Week in Web3
1. Finally, the merge happened this week. Ethereum switched to Proof of Stake. And it’s more greener now. Read more about the merge effects in the next section.
2. Someone minted an NFT worth 30.1 ETH in the last block of Ethereum’s PoW chain. And paid a 1.3 ETH gas fee. It’s a Vanity Block NFT. They are known for: “In addition to wasting lots of ETH on fees we only mint blocks that have pretty numbers, like 14114114, 14360063, 14401440….”. This is the NFT (on OpenSea) and it has a 20 ETH bid as of now.
3. Starbucks into web3? Yes, the coffee chain that sells coffees for the price of a diamond has now announced something called the Starbucks Odyssey program. Customers (through the Starbucks Rewards app) will be able to earn (by playing interactive games on the app) or buy limited edition digital samples (NFTs) that will earn them points, which in turn will provide access to various events, immersive digital experiences, and merchandise. An NFT-based loyalty program. Probably nothing? [Tweet Thread]
4. Fidelity, one of the world’s largest asset managers, is probably about to offer Bitcoin trading to 34 million retail clients. [Tweet]
5. NEAR protocol announced a $100M web3 fund. The Near Foundation partnered with Caerus Ventures to launch this fund with the goal of attracting creators, talent, and franchise owners to build the next generation of web3 platforms and applications. [The Block]
6. Doodles raised $54M at a $704M valuation. Yes, that’s the NFT project that hasn’t tweeted for a while, and raised some concerns among the HODLers. The current floor price of this blue chip project is 7.77 ETH. Some notable collectors of doodles include Justin Bieber, Gary Vee, Snoop Dog, and, Steve Aoki. [Tweet]
7. The hunt for Do Kwon, the creator of Terra Luna and stable coin Terra USD just began. The protocol wiped out billions of dollars of investors’ money in just a few days because of the depeg. Many have filed complaints against Kwon accusing him of fraud and illegal fundraising. Currently, he was issued an arrest warrant. [Tweet]
8. The drama around Tornado Cash still continues. The US now permits the users to access their cash deposits (doing so was illegal a while ago). But now, the users need a license to retrieve their funds from the sanctioned crypto mixer. [The Defiant]
9. If you are using Coinbase, you can now go into the app and search for the politicians and see their ratings based on if they are supportive or against crypto. An indicator to impact your voting decisions. Just another chad move by Coinbase. [Tweet Thread]
10. Fortnite creator Epic Games Store launches its first NFT game. The studio says over 1 million players play Blankos and you’ll be able to own your assets as NFTs. The game is built on the studio’s own blockchain but they have a bridge to Ethereum. [Decrypt]
11. New York’s MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) is considering buying $70M worth of NFTs. Just imagine how awesome it’d be if they buy any of my NFTs for a million dollars or so.
12. I missed this in the last week’s issue. Ford (Yeah, the Ford car company in the Ford vs Ferrari movie) will probably enter the world of NFTs and Metaverse. The car company has filed for 19 metaverse trademark applications covering its car brands including Mustang, Bronco, Lincoln, Explorer, and F-150 Lightning, among others. [Cointelegraph]
13. The 2022 Global Crypto Index report by Chainalysis is out. Vietnam, Philippines, Ukraine, India and US are the top 5. This is a measure of where the most people are putting the biggest share of their money into cryptocurrency.
14. Stat: According to DappRadar, companies in the Web3 gaming field have raised around $750 million along with other metaverse projects since the beginning of August. [Investing]
15. There is a crypto farm in Australia that is trying to make Bitcoin Mining ‘green’. The mining facility will run on electricity generated from solar power, making it efficient. [Bitcoin]
16. Cardano’s Vasil Hard Fork to happen on September 22nd. This upgrade will enhance the network’s performance by increasing throughput, script efficiency, and reducing latency in block transmission.
The Merge Effects
- Someone paid 36 ETH in gas to mint the first ever PoS NFT, post-merge. [Tweet]
- The first slashing occurred at slot 4,700,025 for “Attestation Violation”. [beaconcha.in]
- ETH is now ultrasound money. Really? Legend has it that gas fees above 15 gwei should make $ETH deflationary. But currently, the supply change since the merge is positive because of the lack of chain usage. You can check more stats on that here.
- Hal Finney (the first person to ever receive a Bitcoin and some even say he is Satoshi) tweeted this in Jan 2009: “Thinking about how to reduce CO2 emissions from a widespread Bitcoin implementation”. 13 years later, Ethereum just did it.
- “When you meet on Reddit and 4 years later reduce the world’s electricity consumption by 0.5%”. This 👌
- Post merge, ETH is down 18.5% in 3 days.
- Ethereum Whales moved $813M in ETH for sale, 24hrs post-merge.
- Dogecoin now becomes the second largest Proof Of Work (PoW) cryptocurrency as Ethereum switched to PoS.
Interesting Reads
- Interview with the anonymous person who claimed over 703 CryptoPunks
- ETH issuance, burn, and ultra-soundness.
- What $ETH Merge means for institutions
- New terms and tooling around Proof of Stake
- $SOL will rip next cycle. Here’s why
- Venture Capital and Web3
- Now that the merge is here, it’s time to learn about EIP-4844
- Does Cardano have a better Proof of Stake model than Ethereum?
- Bitcoin and Ethereum – Centralization Risks
Do You Know?
In 2017 a bug in the smart contract for the Parity multi-sig wallet allowed a malicious user to lock ~$280M of user funds in 587 wallets. It’s still locked up in 2022 and now worth $474M. [Reddit]
Meme Of The Week
