Is Bitcoin a tumor?
Nassim Taleb's villain origin arc inside 👉
GM people of Web3 ✨
This week we are taking you to the lush garden of Web3 and picking the best fruits for you. We basically mean, for you to have a good Sunday morning read, we looked like this:
This week we have:
Ethereum merge
“Bitcoin is a tumor.”
Web3 funding, jobs & bonus reads
Estimated reading time: 3:15 mins
Weekly Wrap: Numbers & News 🗞
Quick web3 updates curated for you:
The first guilty plea in an Indian insider trading case involving cryptocurrency markets in the US has been made.
The SWIFT financial-messaging system is planning to test blockchain technology with fintech startup Symbiont in a pilot project aimed at reducing inefficiency in cross-border payments.
A Korean court has issued a warrant for Do Kwon, the primary developer of cryptocurrencies Luna and TerraUSD.
Yuga Labs hopes to make $50 million with the new Mecha Apes collection.
Lido’s staked Ether surges closest to Ether since Terra Crash.
Ethereum’s historic upgrade is here!
This week, we witnessed a Big W in crypto history—The Merge.
The Merge is the Ethereum blockchain's transition from Proof-of-work (PoW) to Proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. Consider Ethereum as an Eth Car with PoW as its engine. A new, more effective engine called PoS will take the place of the current one mid-flight.
PoS provides more advantages:
Allows for additional scalability enhancements
More reliable (harder to attack the network)
Requires less energy (99% less)
More decentralised system (lower economies of scale in staking)
Reduced issue of $ETH (deflationary supply)
Also, NO, the merge won't result in lower gas prices—clearing one of the most popular misconceptions right now. The goal here is to alter the consensus mechanism, not to expand the network's capacity.
Hard Fork:
The Merge is technically a hard fork - a chain will split into two:
Old PoW chain
New PoS chain
Your holdings will initially be duplicated, and both chains will be identical, but the value will still remain in one decided by stablecoins with social consensus
Since the merge was just completed, the majority of these modifications will take some time to execute. It is the first step towards a better future that will take some time to complete.
ETH maxis and people generally bullish on web3/crypto bullish commemorated this historic upgrade in their own ways. Someone spent 36 ETH to mint the very first-ever non-fungible tokens on the PoS-based Ethereum network.
The image called “The Transition” was minted at block height 15537394 and represents a panda face. 🐼
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“Bitcoin is a tumor.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a famous author and options trader, has turned his back on crypto. Officially a hater. And he wants you to know Bitcoin is a tumor.
They say, “If you don't die a hero, you live long enough to become the villain.” Here’s Taleb’s arc:
Once upon a time, Taleb was into cryptocurrencies and owned some. Back in April 2020, he even told Lebanese people to “use cryptocurrencies!” to get around the country’s financial system.
A few months later, he complained about Coinbase’s customer support on Twitter and then closed his Coinbase account.
By February 2021, Taleb declared Bitcoin “a failure” because of its volatility and said he was selling his Bitcoin.
In April 2021, he claimed Bitcoin “has characteristics of an open Ponzi.”
Well, looks like someone is hurt; call an ambulance…
Now, in a recent interview, Taleb argued that anyone under 40 doesn’t understand how the economy works because of the Federal interest rate environment in which they’ve grown up.
“Zero interest rate for a long period of time, you are hurting the economy, you are creating bubbles, creating tumors like Bitcoin,” Taleb said.
While Taleb is urging society to “go back to normal economic life,” he also argued that “we’re still far away from stressors.”
But, no matter what Taleb says, you are still bullish on crypto. Right? 👀 Let us know by saying “Yes!” in the comments at the end.
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Funding Round-up
Arpeggi Labs, a new startup that uses blockchains to make music in web3, has raised $5.1 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm and other famous artists.
Goldsky, a data infrastructure company for crypto startups, raised $20 million in a series A round led by Felicis Ventures and Dragonfly Capital.
LearnWeb3 raises $1.25M seed round to help onboard developers into web3.
Sip on your Sunday coffee and chuckle if you made it here ☕
A Bored Ape Ethereum NFT Owner is Launching a Real-World Yacht Club
A Peculiar Flavor of NFTs Is Thriving in China – One Regulators Can Abide
Meme of the week 🤠
That’s a wrap for This Week in Web3, see you next week! 🚀
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