Replies to post #2947 on Ethereum (ETHUSD)

[Investors3]

Three Arrows buys 156K ETH in the weeks after CEO ‘abandoned ETH’
KEIRA WRIGHT
13 HOURS AGO

Only a few weeks ago, CEO Zhu Su was blasting ETH on Twitter for high gas fees and accessibility issues. Now, his company is buying the dip.

Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) has bought more than half a billion dollars worth of Ether (ETH) in the time since CEO Zhu Su publicly slammed the cryptocurrency on Twitter. Do the purchases mean he’s changed his mind, or was he just taking advantage of a market crash to buy the dip?

In an anti-ETH tirade between Nov. 20 and Nov. 22, Zhu tweeted about why he had “abandoned Ethereum despite supporting it in the past.” The thread came in response to a tweet from Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, who’d called out people who have “sold out in pursuit of profit maximization.” During the tweet storm, Zhu claimed that Ethereum culture “suffers massively from the Founders’ Dilemma” and that “everyone is already far too rich to remember what they originally set out to do.”

However, after attracting wide attention, he made a U-turn, saying he wanted to “soften” his original stance and that “I love Ethereum and what it stands for.”

In the 17 days or so since the threads, approximately 156,400 ETH or $676.37 million has been transferred to a wallet that blockchain analytics firm Nansen has associated with 3AC.

Almost all the funds entering the wallet during this period were transferred from Binance, FTX exchange or Coinbase.

Zhu confirmed the transactions earlier today in response to a tweet from Chinese blogger Wu Blockchain, saying that although Ethereum’s layer one is still “unusable for newcomers,” he’d still “bid hard on any panic dump like this weekend.”

The wallet shows 3AC made the majority of its purchases during the weekend price crash.

When the anti-ETH tweets emerged, many Twitter users believed he was trying to pump rival project Avalanche (AVAX), which 3AC has invested in. In response to a user asking if the ETH purchases meant he’d dumped his AVAX holdings for ETH, he said that he has “never sold AVAX” and simply “bought this ETH from whoever was financially illiterate enough to sell this weekend.”

In early November, Three Arrows Capital was announced as an investor in Blizzard, a fund to promote the development of AVAX. Following Zhu’s initial tweets, AVAX pushed out Dogecoin (DOGE) from its spot as the 10th-largest crypto by market capitalization. Zhu tweeted a graph of AVAX’s growth captioned “top 10” in the hours before his U-turn.

At 23:34 UTC on Tuesday, 93,791.894 ETH was moved from the wallet belonging to 3AC to an address that appears to belong to a major trader. Smaller amounts have been moved to other addresses, including 500 ETH moved to an apparent NFT investment wallet.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/three-arrows-buys-156k-eth-in-the-weeks-after-ceo-abandoned-eth

[Investors3]

Ethereum 2.0 Testnet Kintsugi Goes Live in Preparation for Merge
Kintsugi is a public testnet for people to experiment with Ethereum 2.0 before the merge to proof of stake.
By Jeff Benson
3 min read
Dec 20, 2021

In brief

Ethereum developers have released several short-lived testnets to experiment with the merge.

The release of this "longer-lived public testnet" should be one of the last steps before Ethereum 2.0 is functional.

Ethereum developer teams have been hard at work preparing for Ethereum 2.0, the proof-of-stake platform designed to make the blockchain's transactions faster, cheaper, and less energy-intensive.

But while ETH2 isn't ready quite yet, its first major testnet is, providing the public with a look into how the network may soon function.

Tim Beiko, who coordinates the Ethereum core developers, announced the Kintsugi testnet today on the Ethereum Foundation blog. Kintsugi is a Japanese word for using gold to repair broken objects without attempting to hide the damage; the word evokes a sense of transparency about something's history.

Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth ??
@TimBeiko
Over the past few months, client teams have been working tirelessly to implement a new set of merge milestones. They are now live on a new testnet: Kintsugi ??!

Here's how you can join the testnet and help with testing: https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/12/20/kintsugi-merge-testnet/ ??

Christmas came early??!

While the Ethereum network in its current state isn't broken, it is a victim of its success. After pioneering decentralized finance applications, NFTs, and even blockchain-based games, network transaction costs are scaring off some users. Swapping assets on a peer-to-peer basis or bidding on digital collectibles on-chain requires part of the network's energy—to push transactions through relatively quickly, people must pay higher fees or wait until there's less activity on the blockchain.

Ethereum 2.0 solves for that. It moves the network from a proof-of-work system like Bitcoin's, which has "miners" validate transactions, to a proof-of-stake system that lets people secure the network by locking up some of their ETH into the protocol. While both miners and stakers get rewards, Ethereum's proof-of-stake system also scales up the space available on the network.

Developers have already made strides toward Ethereum 2.0.

Phase 0 of the upgrade went live last December with the launch of the Beacon Chain, which will eventually be used to bridge the current network to the new one. And billions of dollars in ETH have already been staked to the new network.

To prepare for the merge, developers have introduced four short-lived testnets designed to simulate how the network will work once it goes to proof of stake. Kintsugi is here to stay, however, and designed not just for in-the-know developers to use but all members of the public.

"Although client development and UX continue to be refined, we encourage the community to start using Kintsugi to familiarize themselves with Ethereum in a post-merge context," wrote Beiko.

Most are hoping that things are in good enough shape to make "#testingthemerge" a quick process, so that other testnets—such as Görli and Rinkeby—can be used to simulate the transition.

"Once these have upgraded and are stable," Beiko wrote, "next up is Ethereum mainnet’s transition to proof of stake."

https://decrypt.co/88889/ethereum-testnet-kintsugi-goes-live-preparation-merge

[Investors3]

Vitalik proposes new ‘multidimensional’ Ethereum fee structure
January 06 2022 - 10:41PM
Cointelegraph
MARTIN YOUNG
1 HOUR AGO

Calculating different gas prices for different resource usage may streamline the current fee structure for Ethereum according to Buterin.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has put his thinking cap on again in an attempt to improve the current fee structure for the network.

The proposal titled “Multidimensional EIP-1559” was laid out in a blog post on Jan. 5 in which Buterin noted that different resources in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) have different demands in terms of gas usage.

He added that there are different limits for short-term “burst” capacity as opposed to “sustained” capacity within the EVM citing examples of block data storage, witness data storage, and block state size changes.

“The scheme we have today, where all resources are combined together into a single multidimensional resource ('gas'), does a poor job at handling these differences.”

The problem is that channeling all the different resources into a single one leads to “very sub-optimal gas costs” when these limits are misaligned, he added.

Buterin outlined his fairly complicated proposed changes with a lot of technical math, but in a nutshell, the proposal offered two potential solutions using “multidimensional” pricing.

The first option would calculate the gas cost for resources such as call data and storage by dividing the base fee for each unit of resource by the total base fee. The base fee is a fixed-per-block network fee included in the EIP-1559 algorithm.

The second more complex option sets a base fee for using resources but includes burst limits on each resource. There would also be “priority fees” which are set as a percentage and calculated by multiplying the percentage by the base fee.

He stated that the drawback to the multidimensional fee structure is that “block builders would not be able to simply accept transactions in high-to-low order of fee-per-gas.” They would have to balance the dimensions and solve additional mathematical problems.

It remains to be seen whether the proposal will be passed since the priority at the moment is the next big upgrade. The Ethereum network is currently gearing up for “the merge” which will dock the Ethereum blockchain with the Beacon Chain and effectively end Proof-of-Work. Testing is already occurring on the Kintsugi testnet and full deployment is expected in the first quarter of this year.

EIP-1559 was deployed in August as part of the London upgrade to burn a portion of the transaction fees in order to make gas pricing more predictable. Since it went live, 1.36 million ETH worth approximately $4.7 billion at current prices has been destroyed according to the burn tracker.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/vitalik-proposes-new-multidimensional-ethereum-fee-structure

[Investors3]

Why Layer 2s are the future
An interview with one of the top minds exploring Ethereum's scalability

Ryan Sean Adams

?? This is an interview between David Hoffman and Polynya—an anonymous Ethereum and crypto researcher publishing some of the best thinking on Layer 2s, zk-rollups, and the world of Web3.

https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/why-layer-2s-are-the-future

[Investors3]

BUIDLing Among the Chaos: What Devs Discussed at ETHDenver
Tracy Wang
Feb 23, 2022

High school students, Web 2 converts and crypto founders spent a week building the future of finance in a jam-packed venue. What comes next?

The 10-day ETHDenver conference wrapped up Sunday afternoon with Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin donning a furry buffalo-unicorn costume on stage as he judged the conference’s hackathon finalists.

This year, ETHDenver drew thousands of developers – known as “BUIDLers” in cryptoland – to the Mile High City, despite ETH prices that dipped and dipped some more over the course of the week.

While the usual crypto conference debauchery occurred in Denver, this year’s conference stood out due to the sheer amount of actual building that occurred. Legions of T-shirt clad engineers were littered about hotel conference rooms, word-of-mouth hacker houses or the oversized bean bag chairs scattered throughout The Castle, an antiquated Chrysler showroom turned event space that hosted the majority of the show.

“ETHDenver is one of my favorite conferences because it’s super developer-focused,” said jacobc.eth, an operations lead at crypto wallet firm MetaMask and a guest judge for the ETHDenver hackathon. “Most crypto conferences are just people shilling their project’s token.” This one was for the hackers.

In this context, the term “hacking” means coding, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the word’s more internet-native definition: “exercising skill to the limit,” as hackathon projects are typically churned out in a span of mere hours or days.

“The culture at ETHDenver is around people building in an open source way that is really fun and celebratory,” jacobc.eth told CoinDesk in an interview at the conference.

CoinDesk spoke to a variety of attendees ranging from protocol founders to high school students, from Web 2 defectors to female code-shippers.

Full of starry-eyed optimism for the future of Web 3 and crypto, simply put, they came to Denver to BUIDL.

Meet the BUIDLers

It’s been over two years since Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of the $5.5 billion Near Protocol, says he’s seen his co-founder, Alex Skidanov, in person. The two finally crossed paths last week at ETHDenver and spent a few hours hacking together, just like old times.

“It brought us back to the days when we started Near in a room with a whiteboard,” Polosukhin told CoinDesk.

Polosukhin wasn’t the only prominent founder in attendance – Ethereum’s own Vitalik Buterin was spotted aiding developer teams, visiting hacker houses and even voicing his view on the Canadian trucker fiasco. (His fashion also made headlines.)

“I got to speak with Vitalik,” said Byeongjun Moon, a high school hacker and founder of PadawanDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that sponsors budding crypto enthusiasts (who must be under 25 years old) to attend blockchain conferences.

“We sent about 70 young people to ETHDenver this year,” Moon, 16, told CoinDesk. The conference helped him “realize the importance of diverse perspectives in moving Ethereum forward.” Moon says he’s been involved with Ethereum since 2014, when he was just 9 years old.

Another developer, Konrad Gnat, came to ETHDenver seeking a new challenge after working for years in Web 2. He says this is the 10th Ethereum-related hackathon (including virtual ones) he’s attended since May 2021.

“I’ve built up a skill set in Web 2 already where now I feel confident building whatever I want,” he told CoinDesk at the post-conference ski retreat in Breckenridge. “In Web 3, you’re only limited by your imagination. It’s about skating to where the puck will be, not where it is.”

In-person networking

With February also marking the two-year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic, the conference also marked the first time many project contributors have met their virtual collaborators in real life.

“Remote work has its benefits, but the iteration is slower,” said Near’s Polosukhin. “These types of events are important. It brings a bunch of creative people together.”

In addition to in-person collaboration, many attendees touted the importance of face-to-face networking. Despite the jam-packed days of panels and workshops, many attendees made time to attend a myriad of side events.

“ETH Denver was like next-level networking and bonding,” said Thy-Diep “Yip” Ta, co-founder of Unit Network, who participated in the hackathon as a delegate from the all-women H.E.R. DAO and also received a sponsorship from the team behind the Harmony blockchain.

The events are typically co-hosted by crypto exchanges, blockchain projects, DAOs, protocols or venture capital firms, and vary in scope from unassuming cocktail parties to nightclub raves featuring artists such as Tiesto (sponsored this year, somewhat improbably, by Bacon Coin).

Ta’s hackathon submission, Proof of Meditation, is a decentralized application (dapp) that takes a user’s heart rate during meditation sessions to generate unique pixel art NFTs. It won a prize in the “Impact” category.

She says she started each day with either a morning swim at 6:15 a.m. or a yoga meditation session at the H.E.R. DAO hacker house.

“The well-being sessions were super vital to keep the calm amidst the chaos,” Ta told CoinDesk.

Big incentives

Sponsorship recipients like Ta typically receive free airfare and accommodations from the sponsoring entity (typically a well-capitalized layer 1 blockchain) to attend the conference.

Skale, an Ethereum scaling solution, announced a $100 million ecosystem fund last Friday, a testament to the big incentives blockchain projects use to lure developers into building projects in their ecosystems.

“Our hackers are grinding,” Skale co-founder Jack O’Holleran told CoinDesk in an interview during the conference. “So far, they’ve made over 20 submissions on Skale.”

Last Thursday, data-querying project The Graph announced a similar $205 million ecosystem fund to support dapp development using its technology.

One day later, the Algorand Foundation announced it would award $20 million to developers building Ethereum-compatibility solutions or developer tooling for Algorand.

“The job of the foundation is to build good fertile ground for people to get involved with Algorand,” said Staci Warden, CEO of the Algorand Foundation. “That means grant-giving and providing assistance, including technical assistance.”

That’s up to folks like Ryan Fox, a member of Algorand’s developer relations, or “DevRel,” team. They’re more-extroverted builders (“developers who also like to talk to people,” per Near’s Polosukhin) who crucially serve as a project’s brand evangelists, fielding technical questions at booths or providing on-site technical assistance to builders during the hackathon.

“We had incredible engagement with devs using Reach to design and deploy their smart contracts to both Algorand and Ethereum simultaneously,” Fox told CoinDesk. “Beyond Web 3, the buzz focused on interoperability.”

Reach is a programming language that allows developers to use a few lines of JavaScript code to write Solidity smart contracts, the technical underpinnings of everything from non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to decentralized exchanges.

Near launched its new Web 3 startup platform Pagoda on Sunday. Pagoda is a set of tools to help developers more easily develop applications for Near.

“With Pagoda, we’re opening Near up to JavaScript developers,” said Marieke Flament, CEO of the Near Foundation. “We believe that’s what opens the door to be mainstream and increase the overall pool of talent.”

A ‘growth flywheel’

Many prominent developers compared the energy of the conference to the early days of Web 2, a term that refers to the reigning tech giants such as Google, Facebook or Amazon.

For many projects, that meant new product launches aimed at integrations or tools that streamlined the development process for engineers.

Jacobc.eth said MetaMask’s new Snaps system was inspired by a strategy used by Google Chrome, which he claimed provided the best developer tools to build websites during the rise of Web 2. As a result, many of today’s most popular websites were built on Chrome.

“It just created a growth flywheel,” he told CoinDesk.

Launched last week, MetaMask Snaps, available only on the developer build of MetaMask, allows third-party projects, such as Solana or Cosmos, to create their own application programming interfaces (APIs) for for the popular Ethereum wallet.

“There are a lot of teams here building using Snaps,” said jacobc.eth. “Some are being built by third-party teams, some by anonymous devs, some are being built in-house by our own team.”

On Tuesday, Ethereum sidechain Polygon announced the launch of Finity, a user interface (UI) development tool that offers Polygon developers a suite of “tried-and-tested assets, elements, and templates, with a focus on 3D design,” according to a press release.

“It’s wild right now,” said Skale’s O’Holleran. “There’s so many people building in Web 3 – everyone from the brilliant hackers in a college dorm room to the largest corporations.”

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/02/23/buidling-among-the-chaos-what-devs-discussed-at-ethdenver/