So Ethereum has finalized the Shanghai Hard Fork called “Shapella” where users have the option to withdraw their ETH rewards or exit staking entirely. If they choose to withdraw their staking rewards, the ETH staking rewards will automatically be sent to their provided withdrawal address depending on the number of validators enabling withdrawals, which may take from 3.5 days to 7 days if the number of withdrawals processed are in between 400k to 800k. Another good thing is that users do not need to pay fees for withdrawing those rewards. You can refer to Ethereum’s blog for more info.
This is good news for Ethereum validators as they are able to access their ETH holdings without any more delays. Many people speculate that the withdrawal announcement may cause a selloff, causing the ETH price to go down. However, the opposite is true, as ETH price just went up 5% as of 13-Apr-2023 and hitting the $2,000 mark.
The downsides of Ethereum staking still remain, where you need a minimum of 32 ETH ($64,000 or ~RM282,000) to run an Ethereum validator node, which is extremely unaffordable for an average user to decentralize and secure the Ethereum network unless if you delegate your ETH to a pool such as Lido & Rocketpool. According to Nansen, Lido is already controlling approx. 31% of the total staked ETH, while slightly more than 50% are controlled by Lido, COINBASE & Kraken. This also means the whole Ethereum validation network is controlled by only 3 entities, so the decentralization factor of this is still far from ideal.
SK Planet is building an Avalanche Subnet
SK Planet, a subsidiary of one of the largest Korean ‘Chaebol’ companies SK, will be launching their own Avalanche Subnet called UPTN. UPTN will be integrated into SK Planet’s popular services such as OKCashbag, equivalent to something like an Amazon or a Lazada, where the community will gain access to NFTs, unique community features and dynamic membership benefits powered by the Avalanche protocol.
You can read more on subnets . In plain terms, subnet is basically a kind of sidechain on Avalanche where each subnet can define its own rules with regards to token economics, fee regime, maintaining their own blockchain state & provide their own security.
This is a good step to onboard new Korean users into blockchain-powered platforms seamlessly. Let’s see if Shopee or Lazada may follow suit in building their own Web3-like platform.
eToro will offer crypto trading services to Twitter users
I’m sure many of you have heard of eToro from the constant stream of YouTube ads (if you never seen them before, you may be using adblocker or BRAVE browser, good for you). Anyway, eToro will partner with Twitter to integrate their crypto trading services directly into the platform.
Twitter users may search for the respective CashTag such as $TSLA, $BTC, $ADA with real time prices and will direct them into the eToro platform to invest in them.
If this integration is successful, we may potentially also see other trading platforms getting into action to integrate their services into Twitter, maybe TD Ameritrade, Robinhood or Interactive Brokers?
Anyway, I think the priority for Elon Musk would be to integrate payments into Twitter to build a digital economy around the social media platform, and will introduce fiat payments first before crypto payments. Now you may be thinking:
Are we going to see eToro platform partnering with Twitter to let users buy cryptos and use them as payment to support content creators & buy services in Twitter?
I don’t think so. It’s a trading platform after all, and if you’re holding your cryptos in your eToro trading account, you technically do not claim any ownership to those cryptos because you’re not the key holder to your account. Not to mention that you also need to give up your sensitive information such as your mobile phone and address (plus SMS authentication which is not very safe) to be able to withdraw crypto positions.
Most likely scenario would be that Twitter will create it’s own wallet, and the first cryptocurrency to be accepted would likely be Bitcoin, Ethereum & Dogecoin (as Elon Musk is most familiar with these cryptos, and with his track record at Tesla, he likes to vertically integrate things)
Elon Musk confronted a BBC reporter
Speaking of Elon Musk, I love how Elon just called the BBC reporter out when the reporter spoke out about how he saw an increase in hate speech in Twitter, but couldn’t point out any examples of hate speech.
I’m with Elon Musk on this one. A quality, constructive feedback would involve pointing out a very clear problem statement with examples as evidence to back up those claims. If you try to state a problem without any proof, no one will believe what you say.
This is also relevant to the crypto communities out there as you’ll also see many crypto people, especially maximalists, would call out other blockchains, using terms such as “vapourware”, “shitcoin”, “No DApps”, “no smart contracts”, “it will go to zero” and so on without giving very strong examples to justify their comments.
Learn how to stay mindful, open and thoughtful is a way to show respect to others and build great communities. After all, everyone who joins the cryptocurrency space with a common goal: to de-risk themselves from the systematic failures of the traditional banking & fiat systems.
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