Weekly Web3 Workout — 28th Aug 22
Intro
Welcome to the Weekly Web3 Workout. The end of summer is coming, and soon the weather will match the markets. There is however no shortage of news pouring in, with lots to get our teeth into this week.
Crypto Highlights
$BTC $19,988 -6.99%
$ETH $1,557 -5.55%
$YOP $0.062 +3.18%
$USDT Market Cap $67.55Bn
$USDC Market Cap $52.29Bn
Regulation
First and foremost, Tether… only Tether would pull something like this. The SEC, the org that people tremble over when they speak, set out this now well know sanction. It went something like this, Do Not Use Tornado Cash. Now to most people that seems quite clear, you know the whole DO NOT USE TORNADO. That seems straight forward to me. Tether on the other hand are one step ahead. They understood the SEC sanction to mean, do what you want because you’re Tether, you don’t need to operate in a regulated manner, in fact while you’re at it, how about changing some of that noncash collateral into something meaningful using Tornado, you know, while you’re at it. For more details on this story check out https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/24/crypto-sanctions-tether/
A refreshing approach from Australia on crypto regulation, the government will kick off a token mapping project that will identify notable gaps in the current regulatory framework. Regulation starts with research, learning, and understanding. This is a great approach to regulation and sadly not one that we have seen wide adoption of so far to date https://decrypt.co/107943/australia-unveils-plans-crypto-regulations-unlike-anywhere-else-in-the-world. The Australian treasury announced a multi-step plan to establish a crypto regulatory framework that it claims will be more thorough and better-informed than those previously established “anywhere else in the world.”. Key to the government’s approach will be a form of market research it’s calling “token mapping.” Token mapping will allow officials to view and evaluate nuanced trends in Australian crypto markets, to best “identify how crypto assets and related services should be regulated.”
The Merge
It’s coming fast so I hope you are ready for it! At 11:34am on 6th Sept ’22 the Ethereum Merge will be triggered. The first step is the Bellatrix upgrade moving to Proof of Stake. At this point the Terminal Total Difficulty value triggering The Merge is set, putting The Merge date between Sep 10th-20th, ‘22.
A feature of the Merge that we have been able to take advantage of until now has been staking $ETH on the ETH2 chain. There are many options but the most popular is Lido’s stETH. Despite some complications with stETH earlier this year, it is by far the most popular $ETH staking option. That said, once the Merge happens, where is the best place to earn $ETH yield? Are there other staking options? Should I start my own node. Many questions, I don’t have all the answers yet. What I can share is that the Ankr protocol or the Rocket Pool are good options moving forward, and stETH will be around for a while yet regardless. There is also the option of creating your own $ETH node. Personally, I am talking with some data warehouse chaps to explore the best options and work out what a post Merge staking world looks like. I will update you soon.
In addition to all the above options, is Coinbase’s cbETH. This is a wrapped $ETH option available via Coinbase. This is brand new and some functionality is not live yet. So that said, I’m sure everyone reading this would ALWAYS DYOR! I would never have to explain that to you…. would I? It seems like people who use Coinbase are not the same people who read this blog. After reading the cbETH reviews on Coinbase, I was surprised by the number of people who don’t DYOR!
- cbETH is not tradable yet
- It won’t earn yield until after the Merge
- Coinbase doesn’t offer unwrapping yet
- DYOR don’t just Ape In!
cbETH looks like a good staking liquidity option post Merge. I think we’ll see a lot more over the next 12 months as Ethereum promotes diversified staking options to deter whales, so the more the merrier. I am ready stoked to see the Ethereum chain PoS switch, also offering a bug bounty (up to $1M!). This might seem obvious but so many projects offer bounties after a hack and not before. One might think this is crazy, but it’s too often path of the course https://decrypt.co/108168/ethereum-bug-before-merge-could-earn-million-dollar-reward
And Finally…A Twitter Spaces
I had great time chatting in this Zebu Live panel on Twitter Spaces. Hosted by Zebu and containing a great panel of guest, we discussed everything about the current state of DeFi. If you missed this while we were live, you can check out the recording here https://twitter.com/Zebu_live/status/1562409660019261441
OK, that’s it. Thanks for reading the Weekly Web3 Workout and I look forward to sharing my thoughts and learnings with you next week. Please share this with all the web3 and crypto curioso out there.
Have a great week!
