💡 ETH Stake Limit Might Rise
In today’s edition: 💼 Swan's growing mining ops, 💻 Dencun hits more testnets, 💥 Flipside's DeFi optimism, 🎮 Shift to Play-to-Airdrop, and more!
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What’s Poppin’?
by Brandy Betz and Sage Young
Ethereum Developers Discuss Post-Dencun Proposals, Including Increasing Maximum Stake From 32 to 2,048 ETH
Even as developers are observing Dencun in trials, they have also begun evaluating and prioritizing Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) for Electra, the next upgrade on the consensus layer.
Swan Bitcoin’s Mining Operation Emerges From Stealth; Has Already Mined 750 BTC
Bitcoin investment platform Swan Bitcoin has brought its mining operations out of stealth with more than 750 BTC already mined and plans to increase capacity ahead of the Bitcoin halving.
Ethereum Dencun Upgrade Coming to 2 More Test Networks by Early February
The network upgrade will soon become active on Sepolia and Holeskey, bringing Dencun one step closer to mainnet.
DeFi Positioned to Drive Crypto’s Next Bull Run: Flipside Crypto
“DeFi leads and NFTs follow,” data scientist Carlos Mercado of Flipside Crypto said to Unchained in an interview. “Everything that’s culture, DeFi is absorbing.”
Opinion: Why Both Gamers and Developers Prefer Play-to-Airdrop Over Play-to-Earn
by Corey Wilton
Players get the speculative thrill of bigger rewards and designers have more flexibility to balance the game economy when Web3 games award points instead of tokens, writes Corey Wilton, CEO of Mirai Labs.
This week a major potential risk to Ethereum was highlighted by a bug that surfaced in Nethermind, a minority execution client. While the bug was fixed quickly, it raised the question of what would happen to the blockchain if Geth, which is used by more than two-thirds of validators and so is considered a “supermajority client,” had a bug. The situation could potentially result in a catastrophic fork of Ethereum.
Ethereum developer Lefteris Karapetsas joined Unchained to discuss the different scenarios of what could happen, the potential impact of a supermajority client issue on staking services such as Lido, why he feels the incentive system is poorly designed, and what other solutions are out there to address the lack of client diversity.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
💵 The U.S. plans to sell over $117 million in bitcoin linked to Silk Road forfeitures, including assets from Ryan Farace's money laundering case.
⚖️ The U.K. Supreme Court rejected Craig Wright's appeal in his libel case against Bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack, upholding the nominal 1 GBP compensation ruling.
🔽 Recently launched spot bitcoin ETFs experienced their first combined negative flow, with high outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC impacting overall market trends.
💼 Joe Lewis, linked to FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, will likely plead guilty to 19 fraud charges, including securities fraud and false statements.
📝 The IRS delayed mandatory reporting of cryptocurrency transactions over $10,000 on Form 8300 until further regulations are provided by the Treasury.
👁️ Worldcoin's iris-scanning Orb, created by Tools for Humanity, is set for an Apple-style redesign, aiming for a more user-friendly and appealing look.
💰 AltLayer's native token began trading on exchanges, reaching a $2.9 billion valuation, with an airdrop of 300 million ALT tokens underway.
📈 MakerDAO’s balance sheet now predominantly comprises of crypto-backed loans, with decreasing US Treasury holdings.
🔗 Estonia approved the extradition of Ivan Turogin and Sergei Potapenko to the U.S. for alleged involvement in a $575 million crypto Ponzi scheme.
🔒 Aleo, a privacy-focused blockchain, prepares for imminent mainnet launch, aiming to extend private transactions to smart contracts.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
💳 Shanghai's Pudong New Area will pilot extensive digital yuan projects, positioning it as an international hub under China's Belt & Road Initiative.
The $$$ Corner…
🏗️ Crypto mining rig manufacturer Canaan garnered over $50 million through preferred share financing to boost production and R&D capabilities.
💾 Ethereum protocol Axiom secured a $20 million Series A funding, led by Standard Crypto and Paradigm, to enhance their historical data access platform and grow their team.
What Do You Meme?
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📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 2.3%, trading at $41,151
ETH is up .9%, trading at $2,254
BTC dominance: 48.23%
Crypto market cap: $1.66T
*All data as of today, 06:39 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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