GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and let's make this Thursday count.
⭐️Today's selection:
- 👻Ethereum Myth Busting
- 🗣Let's Learn Some Slang
- 🧩️Quiz Thursday
- 👌Selected Meme of The Day
- 📰Bite-Sized News
ETHEREUM MYTH BUSTING
Are the rich getting richer? Let's bust this myth right here, right now.
When Ethereum switched from the PoW to PoS, there were a lot of haters of this upgrade online.
The main claim was this: "If you're rich, you earn capital faster than if you're poor!"
Which ultimately leads to the centralisation of the network. This idea got popular because in order to stake... you had to have a lot of free money waiting to be staked.
Is this really the case?
Proof of Stake (PoS) programmatically guarantees the same return for all stakers running an Ethereum node.
Having more ETH does not produce higher returns.
An investment of $1,000,000 in ETH stacking will yield the same compound interest as an investment of $100,000.
And because there are many small stakers for every rich staker, the percentage in the network does not change over time.
Conclusion in simple terms: in PoS, the whales have no significant advantage over the smaller players because everyone's profits don't differ when it comes to percentages.
Whereas in the past, big Ether miners, when it was still running on PoW, could upgrade equipment at lower prices by negotiating with suppliers, and get access to cheaper electricity due to scale and connections - this gave them a bigger advantage over small players.
As you can see - that makes quite a difference. And, Ethereum continues improving. The Ethereum Shanghai update is arriving very soon.
Not even that - Ethereum is showing signs of progress in solving the question of blockchain censorship.
Last November, 79% of Ethereum "post-Merge" nodes came under the influence of OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control).
The impact of OFAC refers to the banning of transactions involving sub-sanctioned counterparties. Affected censored blocks, for example, will not process transactions from Tornado Cash.
But things have changed. That figure has now fallen to 45%! This is the lowest since 11 November, 2022.
More blocks on the blockchain were affected by OFAC because of a new technology called MEV.
MEV allowed people in certain areas to control what gets added to the blockchain.
However, a company called Labrys (which monitors ETHCensorship), explained the way how the number of affected blocks decreased without making any big changes to the blockchain:
Simple! The gradual prevalence of analogues in the ecosystem.For example, the company has noted an increase in the popularity of relays such as BloXroute Max Profit, Ultrasound Money and Agnostic Boost.
Labrys' CEO, Lachlan Feeney, had this to say:
'I am incredibly proud of what the community has been able to do in addressing this problem', - we are proud as well, Lachlain.
TL;DR: Ethereum Network is improving. The blockchain has shown signs of fighting inequality between who gets to reap more rewards in the form of newly-mined coins, as well as they have reduced the OFAC's impact on their ability to censor new blocks.
LET'S LEARN SOME SLANG
Alright. Our reality consists of things that we can name. Web3 is no exception. And when language gets too complex or boring... We turn to slanguage.
And you could easily make a case that there are two types of people. The crypto community, and... no coiners.
A no coiner is a person who does not interact with cryptocurrency in any way and is ostensibly sceptical about blockchain technology and the crypto industry.
Marc Hochstein, editor-in-chief of CoinDesk, discusses this category of citizens as follows:
"...these are people who missed the opportunity to buy bitcoins cheaply <...> and now regret it. The regretful no coiner is getting back at the hodlers, never tired of repeating that bitcoin will collapse. Thus he is showing clear signs of FUD syndrome."
The definition of the term first appeared in the well-known online dictionary Urban Dictionary in December 2017.
Around the same time, it became widespread in the bitcoin community, its use carried negative connotations.
So, we can say that the no coiner is always overwhelmed by resentment. A sense of hostility towards what the subject considers to be the cause of his or her failures. A feeling reinforced by envy and a grievous awareness of the futility of trying to improve one's status in life or in society.
Voila, big words to describe simple words.
QUIZ THURSDAY
Alright, let's get technical. Let's see how well-versed you are when it comes to... talking about the market and its conditions. Here's a question below:
SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY
BITE-SIZED NEWS
- Polygon to Launch its zkEVM Mainnet Beta at the end of March. It stands for 'zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine.'
- SEC to Launch New Rules Targeting Crypto Firms Running as "Qualified Custodians." Potayto potahto.
- UK's Financial Regulator to Take Legal Action Against Unregistered Crypto ATMs. Their time will come, but it's not At This Moment.
With close to a decade of experience in the FinTech industry, Aaron understands all of the biggest issues and struggles that crypto enthusiasts face. He’s a passionate analyst who is concerned with data-driven and fact-based content, as well as that which speaks to both Web3 natives and industry newcomers.
Aaron is the go-to person for everything and anything related to digital currencies. With a huge passion for blockchain & Web3 education, Aaron strives to transform the space as we know it, and make it more approachable to complete beginners.
Aaron has been quoted by multiple established outlets, and is a published author himself. Even during his free time, he enjoys researching the market trends, and looking for the next supernova.