Friday, December 10, 2021

[H] Harvest Moon: Light of Hope, Kingdom Two Crowns Norse Lands, the metronomicon [W] offers

If this list hurts your eyes, don't forget control F

Felt tip circus

Pro Cycling Manager 2017

The Next World

Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story

Tokyo Xanadu ex+

Beat Souls

Trine 4: The nightmare Prince

Neversong

Mighty Switch Force! Collection

G.I. Joe Operation Blackout

Beautiful Desolation

Tropico 5

A game of Thrones: The Board Game

Transport INC

The Plague: Kingdom Wars

The Last Federation

Sudden Strike 4

Railway Empire

Port Royale 3

Disciples iii: reincarnation

Creeper world Anniversary Edition

Canyon Capers

The 39 Steps

Super inefficient Golf

Ampu-Tea

Fortified

My big Sister

Hero Defense

Heckabomb

Ruins to Rumble

The culling of the Cows

RoboWars

DinoSystem

Codex of Victory

Darkend

Call Of Duty WW2 Endowment Fear Not Pack

80's Overdrive

Mini Racing World

House

Star Vikings Forever

Cognition An Erica Reed

Counter Terrorist Agency

Prank Call

The Deed 2

The Metronomicon

Galactic Civilizations 2 ultimate Edition

Press X to Not Die

Ticket to Ride Switzerland

Xuan Yuan VII The Gate of Firmament

Wild Guns Reloaded

The big Con

Spirit Hunter: NG

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Little Dragon's Cafe

Ghost Parade

Cosmic Star Heroine

Change: A homeless Survival Experience

Ary and the Secret of Seasons

Ara Fell

River City Ransom Underground

Memories with my Kitten

3000th Duel

My Lovely Daughter

Hard West Scars of Freedom

AmerZone The explorer's Legacy

Black Moon CHronicles

Chicago 1930: the prohibition

curse: the eye of Isis

Flashback

Garfield Kart

Gevaudan

Haegemonia

Nostradamus The Last Prophecy

Occultus Mediterranean

Sinking Island

Endless Fables: The Minotaur's Curse

Eventide 3: legacy of Legends

Ghost Files: The fact of guilt

Lost Grimoires 2: Shard of Mystery

Gim Legends 3: the Dark City

Lost Grimoires Stolen Kingdom

Modern Tales: age of Invention

Persian Nights: sands of Wonders

The Myth Seekers: The Legacy of Vulcan

The Secret Order 5: The Buried

The Secret Order 6: Bloodline

Tiny Tales: Heart of the Forest

Small world cursed

pandemic roles and events

love letter

splendor

ticket to ride USA 1910

Scythe digital

pandemic mutation

ticket to ride India

kerbal space program

Civ 3 complete

Fun with ragdolls

Men of war

A.I.M. 2 Clan wars

ascension to the throne

el matador

king's bounty warriors of the north

konung 2

necroVisioN lost company

parkan 2

planet alcatraz

star wolves

Press x to not die

Besiege

Die Young

GRIP: Combat Racing - Vintek Garage Kit

GRIP: Combat Racing - Terra Garage Kit

GRIP: Combat Racing - Nyvoss Garage Kit

GRIP: Combat Racing - Cygon Garage Kit

GRIP: Combat Racing

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West

Miscreated

Second Extinction

Team Sonic Racing

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode I

Sonic Mania Encore DLC

Sonic Mania

Sonic Lost World

Sonic Generations Collection

Sonic Forces

Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Collection

Sonic Adventure DX

SONIC ADVENTURE 2: BATTLE

Sonic Adventure 2

White night

Silver chains Downfall

Downfall

Conarium

Conarium

Suite 776

White noise 2

Luxuria Superbia

Ittle Dew 2+

Ittle Dew

Distraint 2

Garfield Kart

Mindustry

Solitairica

Meteorfall: krumit's tale

100% orange juice

100% OJ Syura and Nanako Character pack

100% OJ saki & Kyousuke character pack

100% OJ mixed booster pack

100% OJ krila and Kae Character Pack

100% OJ alte and Kyoko character pack

100% OJ Acceleration pack

100% OJ starter character voice pack

100% OJ core voice pack 1

100% OJ Core voice pack 2

Talisman digital edition

Talisman the frostmarch expansion

Talisman the sacred pool expansion

Talisman the city expansion

Wartile

Trials of fire

The amazing American Circus

DungeonTop

Secret Government

Wrath Aeon of Ruin

Freedom Fighters

overcooked 2

tomb raider

VR MMO

Cute blocks

Web spice

Amaze Untouchables

NeoGeometry

Chocolate makes you happy 4

3D Tower

Pixel Shooter

Chocolate makes you happy 6

Countryballs: Over The World

Workhard

Call of Bitcoin

Divan Chronicles

FallenCore

Bitcoin Collector: Spinners Attack

Hard Place

Agross

Hard Place

Outbreak in Space VR

Orb The Ball

O'Fox Life

Hooligan Vasja: Christmas

Dust On Wheels

Three Of a Fish

Space shock 3

Pixel puzzles junior

Earth 2140 HD

Two worlds epic

Two worlds castle 2

Two worlds epic

Iron sky invasion

All guns on deck

3 switcheD

Slay.one

SAMOSBOR 2D

aMAZE Classic

aMAZE Frozen

aMAZE ZER0

Tumblestone

Age of wonders 3

Super Sports Surgery

Wirenet

Exist

Samoliotik

Charlie's Adventure

Cube Runner

Cybercube

Duke of Alpha Centauri

Hungry Flame

Neon space

Neon space 2

Poly island

slash it

slash it 2

slash it ultimate

spin rush

upside down

Bounty Train

knight shift

holy potatoes a weapon shop

theatre of war 1

theatre of war 2 kursk 1943

theatre of war 2 africa 1943

Harvey's new eyes

Journey of a roach

Twilight City: Love as a Cure

Valhalla Hills

Munin

Crazy Machines 3

the franz kafka videogame

black guards

fall of light

Cultures 8th wonder

star wolves 3 civil war

Fantasy Wars

Zanzarah: The hidden portal

Shooting stars!

Sword Legacy: Omen

Moving out

Hidden folks

COD WW2 bravery pack

Main Assembly

PalmRide

Shadow tactics blades

Deponia

Harvey's New eyes

Joint Task force

Going Under

Red Riding Hood - Star Crossed Lovers

Secret Government


Congressional Crypto Hearings Wrap-up | Crypto Market COFFEE BREAK Report 12.10

Overview

  • Crypto Market Insight: 200 EMA | Bitcoin Dominance | Congressional Hearings
  • Major Crypto News
  • NEWBIES’ Lesson of the Day: What is a non-fungible token (NFT)

Market Insight

Bitcoin continues to test the 48-50k support as volume begins to lose steam. This key support will likely be retested varies times the coming days. The support is in-line with 200 Exponential Moving Average (EMA) which historically indicator of overall market trend. (Above-bull, below-Bear). If Bitcoin holds the 200 EMA, an extended accumulation is likely after a strong ousting of retail positions during the extended drawdown.

BTC 1D Chart

Bitcoin Dominance

It will be interesting to see if Bitcoin Dominance hits new lows or if it decides to break its downward trend. Its generally expected for dominance to rise during uncertain market conditions but that was not the recent case. Investors are becoming more comfortable holding some altcoins like Ethereum during these conditions. Dominance currently sits at 41.49%.

Bitcoin Dominance

Inflation Data

The U.S. bureau of Labor Statistics released the CPI data this morning putting U.S. inflation at 6.8% for the last 12 months. The CPI measures the prices paid by U.S. consumers for goods and services. Inflation is at its highest levels since 1982.

https://preview.redd.it/rkqljmqdhu481.png?width=726&format=png&auto=webp&s=42a8586f12ef0d00885e68f3c0ec7222f864186d

The Federal Reserve that printed 40% of all US dollars into existence this past year is holding talks on December 14 & 15 to discuss bond purchase tapering and interest rate hikes. Crypto investors should keep a close eye on the outcome of the meetings. Widely considered a speculative asset, crypto will be strongly affected by Fed policy changes. Another related factor is the rising number of Covid cases that will likely only get worse as US enters winter. The Fed began aggressive monetary policies around the time lockdowns began in 2020.

Congressional Hearings

     The congressional hearing on Wednesday that featured some keys names in crypto such as FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, and Bitfury CEO Brian Brooker were a success according to the participants. Excluding a few Congressmen, there was a sentiment of progress. The CEOs voiced support for a new regulatory platform for cryptocurrency that wouldn’t destroy its progress in the US. Brian Brooks of Bitfury was the MVP of the hearings. Highlights of the hearings.

Senator Representative Brad Shermon, who appeared to prepare for the wrong type of hearing, added some comedy to the event. Watch minute 2:30.

Follow more of my stories and research on Medium or Subscribe to this report on Substack

Major Crypto News

Meta’s Whatsapp to will Trail Novi Digital Wallet. This is a surprising move for a Meta owned platform. It’s generally accepted that Meta is aiming to propagate their own digital assets ecosystem.

Solana had a bout of congestion on their network on Thursday morning that brought the high-speed network to a crawl and began raising questions about reliability.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), a financial institution focused on maintaining worldwide financial stability, outlines the need for a “Global Approach” to crypto regulation.

Crypto wallet maker Ledger launches crypto debit card for US and a few European customers.

NEWBIES’ Lesson of the day

What is an Non Fungible Token (NFT)

Read in conjunction with yesterday’s report

Characteristics of NFTs:

  • Non-Fungible
  • One of a kind
  • Cannot be altered
  • Will always exist on the blockchain
  • Non-Fungible
  • A blockchain token

Non-Fungible and One of a kind

Every item on planet on fungible or non-fungible. A loaf of bread is fungible. There are numerous loafs of Wonderbread at the store and It really doesn’t matter which particular one you buy. An example of a non-fungible item is a famous sculpture. The sculpture can be duplicated but it will be never have the value of the original.

Cannot Be Altered

When you create an NFT and attach it to the data that mints it on the blockchain, its in a complete state. It will never be altered again. Imagine the Mona Lisa in an indestructible box.

Will always exist on the blockchain

Just like bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, once a block of data is minted, it will always exist on a that blockchain.

A token

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Hamstercoin and NFTs are all tokens. What sets an NFTs apart is that it is ONLY token one of it’s kind. Each Bitcoin is also unique in a sense but the value is identical despite each coin’s uniqueness.

I hope you enjoy your weekend and thanks for reading!

TraderGabi

Follow more of my stories and research on Medium or Subscribe to this report on Substack


Mongoose Coin Now Exists After Politician Makes It Up -Next Gamestop-like Moon Event?

https://t.me/MongooseCoin

https://www.dextools.io/app/ether/pair-explorer/0x450e653a0a125a1dc36d3901d3cce2e2287df0c2

Mongoose Coin Now Exists After Politician Makes It Up

-Next Gamestop-like Moon Event? YESπŸš€πŸš€πŸš€

A crypto-skeptic congressman had raised eyebrows with his contribution to a congressional hearing attended by six executives from the industry. Brad Sherman — who back in 2019 said that Facebook's plans to launch a digital currency could do more harm to America than 9/11 — told them:  "The number one threat to cryptocurrency is crypto. Bitcoin could be displaced by Ether, which could be displaced by DOGE, which could be displaced by HamsterCoin. And there's CobraCoin, what could MongooseCoin do to CryptoCoin?" Sherman's remarks amounted to word salad — not least because half of these coins didn't even exist. The footage caused plenty of amusement on Crypto Twitter. And now, barely a day later, the crypto world has reacted in the most predictable name imaginable… by launching tokens inspired by the fictitious ones he concocted. Mongoose Coin — not to mention Mong Coin and Goose Coin — have now popped up, with some attracting thousands of Twitter followers. 

Mongoose Coin has already attracted a market cap of $50 million!!!

"This is your Mongress. We're just getting started. You can't stop the $mong movement."

-Join the $Mong movement, things are just getting started!!


Q4 Terra Updates for y'all Lunatics out there

With major crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum hitting a volatile period after a solid third Quarter, the close of the year sees a pause in the recent market uptrend for many blockchains - some are set to buck the trend

Since the Columbus-5 deployment at the end of September, the Terra ecosystem has experienced significant growth, both in market capitalization and the number of projects that are being launched. In the article below, we will break down some of the most important milestones achieved in the past few months:

  1. Terra enables IBC

Since Cosmos launched Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) to enable cross-chain DeFi last March, there are now 18 enabled chains after Terra’s inclusion such as Cosmos Hub (ATOM), IRISnet (IRIS), Osmosis (OSMO) and Crypto.com (CRO). With over 20 billion of market capitalization, Terra not only brings its native LUNA token to the Cosmos interconnected ecosystem, but also UST, its decentralized stablecoin.
The move into Cosmos is expected to be very helpful for the progress of DeFi in the ecosystem. Stablecoins are one of the most important building blocks for decentralized finance, and the inclusion of UST will likely open up further use cases for the Terra-based stablecoin, helping provide a stablecoin for Cosmos-based applications.
As a consequence, UST surpassed 8 billion market cap at the beginning of December - a fast growth trajectory with over 100% increase in the last 2 months and expected continuing trend as more projects rely on it on various interconnected blockchains.

  1. Risk Harbor to take over control of Terra’s Ozone Protocol

Ozone is an insurance mutual protocol that covers technical failure risks in the Terra decentralized finance ecosystem. Using Ozone, insurers are covered when smart contracts do not execute properly on the Terra Network.

Ozone insurance mitigates two types of risks to lenders:

On one hand, there’s the smart contract risk. That is, they are often the most vulnerable points for cyber-attack and technology failures. Like any other software code, smart contracts can be hacked, so they require robust testing and adequate controls to mitigate potential risks.

On the other hand, UST, Terra’s stablecoin, has a depegging risk where the value diverges from the US dollar.

Apart from Ozone, Terra has also announced a Bitcoin liquidity pool to mitigate depegging risk. If depegging ever happens, the Bitcoin deposited in the pool will be used to stabilize the price of UST.

Currently undergoing an audit from Oak Security and Certik, Risk Harbor’s technical team will manage and maintain Ozone after the Terra community governance vote, according to a press release published in the first week of the month.

Risk Harbor is an Ethereum-based DeFi risk management marketplace that utilizes an automated, transparent and impartial claims process to protect liquidity providers and stakers against smart contract hacks and attacks.

The announcement of the partnership between Ozone and Risk Harbor has led to the launch of the Arrington Anchor Yield Fund.

  1. Arrington XRP Capital launches The Arrington Anchor Yield Fund

Arrington XRP Capital, a digital asset management firm in blockchain-based capital markets, announced last week the launch of Arrington Anchor Yield Fund.

Anchored by Arrington Capital partners and with capital from Terraform Labs itself, the fund is limited to $100 million in size and is aimed at qualified non-crypto investors who also want exposure to Anchor yield.

  1. Over 88 million Luna tokens to be burnt before mid December

In accordance with Terra proposal #44, the Terra community approved burning 88,675,000 LUNA from the stablecoin community pool to mint about 4 to 5 billion terraUSD stablecoins.

As a consequence, UST surpassed 8 billion market cap at the beginning of December - a fast growth trajectory with over 100% increase in the last 2 months and expected continuing trend as more projects rely on it on various interconnected blockchains.

The swap took place during the last two weeks with exchanges taking place every 800th block. The measure aims to fund new services such as Ozone insurance. This burn is one of the largest of a major layer 1 token in crypto history.

The initiative hasn’t gone unnoticed in the markets, putting a lot of buying pressure on the LUNA token, hitting all-time highs as the proposal was being approved. Subsequent burning has contributed to significant and sustained LUNA token price growth.

  1. Mars Protocol set to launch with a lockdrop

Set to launch in early 2022, Mars is an automated bank built on the Terra blockchain that will allow customers to borrow with interest rates determined by algorithms. The key differentiator with Mars is that decisions on lending are controlled by the governance stakers - essentially savers – who also take on some of the risk.

Mars is, in essence, a Blockchain ‘Mutual’ owned by its members (stakers) and run with controls and adjustable interest charge mechanisms, loan liquidation checks and balances that will allow borrowing, rewards for saving and risk management. Mars will, in the future, offer opportunities to leverage Terra assets to invest and borrow against LTV and liquidation considerations.

  1. Glow Yield to distribute 50M tokens to various Terra participants

Among all this positive news, more projects are launching on the Terra blockchain every week. The latest to announce a new airdrop was Glow Yield, a DeFi platform that leverages Anchor Yield to offer users a wide set of products that are easy and fun to invest in.
Through their official Medium account, as well as through Twitter and Discord, they announced a 50M GLOW token airdrop to LUNA stakers, Anchor stakers, Anchor depositors, Anchor holders and Mine Stakers.

At the same time, they’ll create three pools on Pylon Gateway where they’ll distribute 21M GLOW tokens in vesting periods of 6, 12 and 18 months respectively. Additional 4M GLOW will be allocated in future endeavours with the Pylon community.

Glow bridges the gap between traditional finance and crypto DeFI, allowing users to earn higher interest compared to traditional savings accounts while providing no-loss lotteries, or patron-like platforms to support content creators in exchange for exclusive content.

  1. NFT markets developed in the final quarter of 2021

Another emerging sector within the Terra ecosystem is NFTs. The first projects launched in September and three months later over 60 projects have already launched across the newly established marketplaces and launchpads including Knowhere Art, Random Earth and Talis Protocol. First collections selling out in minutes has given way to smaller projects that didn’t get much attention in the first place. It’s a nascent space but one that is driving investment to Terra often by users bridging from Ethereum.

Latest launches include a horse racing game called Derby Stars where you can buy, breed and race your own horse. The minting events took place in early December - the first two elements of sale both quickly sold out including a public sale of 1500 horses that sold out in 10 seconds! The appetite for NFT projects in Terra is growing.

Another project worth mentioning is Levana, an NFT programme based on the lifecycle of a dragon, beginning with events where you can buy meteors that can be cracked to find out if you have an egg that could lead to a dragon minting opportunity.


I do an analysis for the top 25 coins: market cap and price changes since 1 year ago (ROI top 25: 2,412%), on-chain analysis, whale concentration, percentage of holders in profit/loss/break-even, net network growth and anther market momentum indicator.

1. When in doubt, zoom out! Price changes in one year - average return 2,412% for top 25

On days like this we can see a lot of people expressing their disappointment on the intraday price movements. I’m a frequent lurker on the daily and I can tell you the daily sentiment changes extremely fast, much more sensitive than the Fear & Greed index. But this is because people don't zoom out. 

Here is the fuller picture

SHIB data might be unreliable, but the average ROI for the other 24 coins is 2,413%

Recently I just saw a post in which the OP said ADA is highly undervalued (with the OP's disappointment about recent price movement) and I said that OP should zoom out.

2. On-chain analysis: Percentage of holders that are currently in profit, break-even or loss. Many holders are still in profit, despite the recent downturn.

So why does the OP on that post feel unhappy about ADA’s current price? Even though when we zoom out, ADA has done a huge return in a year. Devils are in the details, on-chain analysis shows that a whopping 78% of ADA holders are at a loss now, while only 16% made profits. 

https://preview.redd.it/h8axbz6fws481.png?width=1007&format=png&auto=webp&s=3a82cd3e2acfcb1a3b7ce4611ce95b3d5e9e4f0a

BTC, ETH, CRO, MATIC and ALGO have the largest percentages of holders currently in profits. Meanwhile, ADA, LINK and UNI have rendered quite a lot of holders in the red. 

The two memecoins (DOGE and SHIB) witness just a bit more than half of the holders in profits (55% and 56%). It’s quite a surprise that 69% of BCH holders are still in profit, even though it’s very far off the ATH in 2018.

3. On-chain analysis: Length of HODLING (or HOLDING) - how real is the diamond hand and how long have they been holding for?

BTC, ETH and BTC have the largest number of HODLERS - more than 50% of the hodlers have had the coins for more than a year. Bitcoin and Ethereum are solid investments and thus always attract a lot of long-term holders, especially large institutional investors in the last few years.

Bitcoin Cash is interesting here, because it’s far off the 2018 ATH but still have quite a lot of hodlers in profit. Because (1) many people bought it in 2017/2018 for over $3,000 are still showing diamond hands (they don’t want to sell because they will realize a huge loss) and (2) many people bought in 2019/2020 at lower prices and now enjoy.

Most SHIB and MATIC (IEO April 2019) holders are newer investors because they were recently launched. However, 92% of ADA investors bought the coin just in the last year, even though it was launched way before (Sep 2017). It is quite evident that lots of people bought in later on when the hype started to spark in the last couple of months.

4. Let’s talk about the whales… how concentrated are these coins in the hands of the big players?

Older coins tend to have lower concentration of the large holders. For example, whales (1%+) and investors (0.1% - 1%) control 11% of Bitcoin supply. The figures for ADA, BCH, ETH and LTC are under 50%.

Note though - many whales hold multiple coins at the same time!!

Newer coins usually have much higher concentration, such as SHIB.

5. On-chain analysis: net network growth & large transactions.

It is MATIC that stands out on both momentum indicators, with net network growth of 3.46% and a whopping 15.67% increase in large transactions, showing the large investors interest. We could link this to an event yesterday - whales added 1,899,990 MATIC in the last 24 hours. As a general theme, layer 2 solutions will be needed for the foreseeable future to enhance scalability.  

Net network growth is a momentum signal that gives a pulse of the true growth of the token's underlying network (the number of new addresses less the number of addresses that go to zero). Another momentum indicator is the number of transactions greater than $100,000

CRO witnessed 5.29% net network growth and a positive 1.85% rise in large transactions. This is related to the recent successful PR strategy such as the Arena, advertising and acquisition of 2 exchanges.

Whales tend to buy more DOGE lately though the network growth is modest. But it is SHIB that turns bearish on both indicators: net network growth is down by 2.45% and also large transactions fell by 2.25%.

So the market growth has been tremendous in the last 12 months. Various changes and more to come...

What do you think the market direction will be in 2022? Let me know your thoughts.


Hypothetical Black Swan Event

What would happen to the bitcoin network during a solar flare black swan event? I read that major solar flares which threaten our electrical network are estimated to occur 1 to 12% every decade and most likely during the solar maximum. Assuming a major solar flare event happens, it could disrupt a lot of the electrical infrastructure and disrupt internet cable connections between continents. How does the bitcoin protocol respond to such an event if different continents are disconnected for months?


Non-Fungible (round)Table Alert! Please join u/Luma44 and me for an NFT Roundtable with @0xmons @alexgausman and @KeramDesign about NFTs, their financialization, and the technology that powers them.

ALERT: Before we get started, I would like to draw everyone's attention to u/Doom_Douche's complete guide to Computershare. If you have any questions surrounding DRS, this is the guide for you. For those that are already comfortable with DRS, crypto has a similar option to self custody and catchphrase to boot: Not your Keys, not your crypto.

Let's get wrinkled!

Hello r/Superstonk resident jellyfish here with you (joined by u/Luma44) to announce an AMA-style roundtable about Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), their financialization, and the technology that powers them is ready for viewing.

Participant's background and resources for learning:

There is a lot to unpack here, so buckle up and let's dive in!

https://i.redd.it/c29n7zz02s481.gif

The entire roundtable is about 2 hours in length, so we have broken it into 3 pieces so that it can be more 'bite sized':

Exploring NFTs

Financialization of NFTs

Technology powering NFTs

No! We got you covered with a transcript uploaded to imgur!

Transcript (hosted at imgur as way too many characters for a post)

Additional Resources for learning about the space can be found below.

Background

Working in Web3: The Handbook (Recommended by Owen)

Ethereum, blockchain, and web3 development

What is web3 and why does it matter?

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs):

  • A way to represent anything unique as an asset.
  • NFTs are giving more power to content creators than ever before.
  • Powered by smart contracts on blockchains (Ethereum is our main initial point of interest).

What Exactly Is An NFT And Why Should You Care https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/05/13/what-exactly-is-an-nft-and-why-should-you-care/

The NFT Crypto Guide Crash Course 101 (https://medium.com/coinmonks/the-nft-crypto-guide-crash-course-101-5b30d39e0646) July 16, 2021 - Stephen Alagbe

How to get exposure to NFTs (https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/how-to-get-exposure-to-nfts) February 23, 2021 - William M. Peaster

Bankless HQ The Bull Case for NFTs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=qSH7vJ8ZJy8&t=770s&ab_channel=Bankless)

https://ethereum.org/en/nft/

Ethereum:

https://ethereum.org/en/what-is-ethereum/

Decentralizing Everything (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSN5BaCzsbo&feature=youtu.be) Sep 18, 2017 - Vitalik Buterin (Video)

Why Decentralization Matters (https://medium.com/s/story/why-decentralization-matters-5e3f79f7638e) Feb 18, 2018 - Chris Dixon

The Year in Ethereum 2020 (https://jjmstark.medium.com/the-year-in-ethereum-2020-98123e5f160d) Jan 20, 2021 - Josh Stark and Evan Van Ness

Ethereum is game-changing technology, literally (https://medium.com/@virgilgr/ethereum-is-game-changing-technology-literally-d67e01a01cf8) Mar 29, 2019 - Virgil Griffith

EthHub (https://docs.ethhub.io/) Comprehensive knowledge base for all things Ethereum

District0x (https://education.district0x.io/general-topics/understanding-ethereum/) An educational resource about Ethereum targeted at beginners

Ethereum.wiki (https://eth.wiki/) A community-built wiki about Ethereum’s technology

Ethereum Foundation YouTube (https://weekinethereumnews.com/) Videos and talks about Ethereum

Week in Ethereum News (https://weekinethereumnews.com/) A weekly newsletter covering key developments across the ecosystem

What’s new in ETH 2.0 (https://eth2.news/) A regular newsletter about Eth2 development

ethresear.ch forum (https://ethresear.ch/) Deeper technical discussions on Ethereum for Eth2 and beyond

ETHGlobal (https://ethglobal.co/) An Ethereum hackathon series

https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/ofndb0/a_crypto_dive_with_the_jellyfish_10_things_about/

r/gamestopofficial: a subreddit where people can post about NFTs including question/answer threads, art & NFT ideas, group collaboration, etc as it relates to GameStop (no Stonk talk)

How Ethereum works high-level explanations of Ethereum and blockchain technology generally:

How does Ethereum work, anyway? (https://medium.com/@preethikasireddy/how-does-ethereum-work-anyway-22d1df506369) Sept 27, 2017 - Preethi Kasireddy

A Gentle Introduction to Ethereum (https://bitsonblocks.net/2016/10/02/gentle-introduction-ethereum/) Oct 2, 2016 - Antony Lewis

Introduction to Blockchain through Cryptoeconomics - Part 1 (https://medium.com/blockchain-at-berkeley/introduction-to-blockchain-through-cryptoeconomics-part-1-bitcoin-369f245067f9) Jan 26, 2018 - Zubin Koticha

Introduction to Blockchain through Cryptoeconomics - Part 2 (https://medium.com/mechanism-labs/introduction-to-bitcoin-through-cryptoeconomics-part-2-proof-of-work-and-nakamoto-consensus-1252f6a6c012) July 19, 2018 - Zubin Koticha

Understanding Ethereum (https://allan-gulley.medium.com/understanding-ethereum-819c2096b613?sk=c89f3aa5a4fd8b5fa0dae3042a3fa011) Apr 27, 2021 - Allan Gulley

Ethereum's original Whitepaper https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/

Smart contracts:

What is a Smart Contract? (https://github.com/ethereumbook/ethereumbook/blob/develop/07smart-contracts-solidity.asciidoc#what-is-a-smart-contract) Nov 12, 2018 - Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Gavin Wood

What are Smart Contracts/Decentralized Applications? (https://docs.ethhub.io/ethereum-basics/what-is-ethereum/#what-are-smart-contracts-and-decentralized-applications)

Proof-of-work and Mining:

What does it mean to mine Ethereum? (https://docs.ethhub.io/using-ethereum/mining/)

Cryptoeconomics:

Cryptoeconomics.study https://cryptoeconomics.study/ Intro to Cryptoeconomics (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0FCI8GxO5I) (Video) Aug 19, 2018 - Karl Floersch

Making Sense of Cryptoeconomics (https://medium.com/l4-media/making-sense-of-cryptoeconomics-5edea77e4e8d) Nov 16 2017 - Josh Stark

Critique and skepticism:

Ethereum’s roadmap isn’t ambitious enough (https://decryptmedia.com/6136/vulcanize-rick-dudley-ethereum-roadmap-makerdao-polkadot) March 27, 2019 - Interview with Rick Dudley

The Challenges of Building Ethereum Infrastructure (https://medium.com/@lopp/the-challenges-of-building-ethereum-infrastructure-87e443e47a4b) Jan 8, 2018 - Jameson Lopp

Parsimonious Answers to Difficult Questions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOkSg0BuSdw&feature=youtu.be) (Video) March 10, 2019 - Rick Dudley

There’s no good reason to trust blockchain technology (https://www.wired.com/story/theres-no-good-reason-to-trust-blockchain-technology/) Feb 6, 2019 - Bruce Schneier

Why is Layer 2 Needed?

  • Some use-cases, like blockchain games, make no sense with current transaction times.
  • It can be unnecessarily expensive to use blockchain applications.
  • Any updates to scalability should not be at the expense of decentralization or security – layer 2 builds on top of Ethereum.

Rollups:

Rollups are solutions that perform transaction execution outside the main Ethereum chain (layer 1) but post transaction data on layer 1. As transaction data is on layer 1, rollups are secured by layer 1. Inheriting the security properties of layer 1 while performing execution outside of layer 1 is a defining characteristic of rollups.

Three simplified properties of rollups are:

  1. transaction execution outside layer 1
  2. data or proof of transactions is on layer 1
  3. a rollup smart contract in layer 1 that can enforce correct transaction execution on layer 2 by using the transaction data on layer 1

Rollups require "operators" to stake a bond in the rollup contract. This incentivizes operators to verify and execute transactions correctly.

Useful for:

  • reducing fees for users
  • open participation
  • fast transaction throughput

There are two types of rollups with different security models:

  • Optimistic rollups: assumes transactions are valid by default and only runs computation, via a fraud proof, in the event of a challenge
  • Zero-knowledge rollups: runs computation off-chain and submits a validity proof to the chain

Optimistic rollups:

Optimistic rollups sit in parallel to the main Ethereum chain on layer 2. They can offer improvements in scalability because they don't do any computation by default. Instead, after a transaction, they propose the new state to Mainnet or "notarise" the transaction.

With Optimistic rollups, transactions are written to the main Ethereum chain as call data, optimizing them further by reducing the gas cost.

As computation is the slow, expensive part of using Ethereum, Optimistic rollups can offer up to 10-100x improvements in scalability dependent on the transaction. This number will increase even more with the introduction of shard chains as more data will be available if a transaction is disputed.

Disputing transactions

Optimistic rollups don't compute the transaction, so there needs to be a mechanism to ensure transactions are legitimate and not fraudulent. This is where fraud proofs come in. If someone notices a fraudulent transaction, the rollup will execute a fraud-proof and run the transaction's computation, using the available state data. This means you may have longer wait times for transaction confirmation than a ZK-rollup because the transaction could get challenged.

Pros:

Anything you can do on Ethereum layer 1, you can do with Optimistic rollups as it's EVM and Solidity compatible.

All transaction data is stored on the layer 1 chain, meaning it's secure and decentralized.

Cons:

Long wait times for on-chain transactions due to potential fraud challenges.

An operator can influence transaction ordering

https://youtu.be/7pWxCklcNsU (VIDEO on Optimistic Rollups)

Zero-knowledge rollups

Zero-knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups) bundle (or "roll-up") hundreds of transfers off-chain and generate a cryptographic proof, known as a SNARK (succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge). This is known as a validity proof and is posted on layer 1.

The ZK-rollup smart contract maintains the state of all transfers on layer 2, and this state can only be updated with a validity proof. This means that ZK-rollups only need the validity proof instead of all transaction data. With a ZK-rollup, validating a block is quicker and cheaper because less data is included.

With a ZK-rollup, there are no delays when moving funds from layer 2 to layer 1 because a validity proof accepted by the ZK-rollup contract has already verified the funds.

Being on layer 2, ZK-rollups can be optimized to reduce transaction size further. For instance, an account is represented by an index rather than an address, which reduces a transaction from 32 bytes to just 4 bytes. Transactions are also written to Ethereum as call data, reducing gas.

Pros:

Faster finality time since the state is instantly verified once the proofs are sent to the main chain.

Not vulnerable to the economic attacks that Optimistic rollups can be vulnerable to.

Secure and decentralized, since the data that is needed to recover the state is stored on the layer 1 chain.

Cons:

Some don't have EVM support.

Validity proofs are intense to compute – not worth it for applications with little on-chain activity.

An operator can influence transaction ordering

Guide: How to use Loopring L2

Thank you so much for dropping by! If you have questions or concerns, please ask away in the comments and we will work to get them answered together? Thanks and have a wonderful rest of your Friday and an even better weekend!