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Ethereum 2.0

Justin Sun’s Poloniex Exchange Lists Ethereum Forked Tokens

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Justin Sun-backed Poloniex Exchange has finally listed Ethereum forked tokens. As per the official announcement the exchange published the listing of ETHS/USDT, ETHW/USDT, ETHS/USDD, and ETH/USDD trading pairs.

Among these tokens, ETHS stands for proof-of-stake-based tokens, while ETHW represents for proof-of-work-based tokens. At present, all ETHS and ETHW transactions have no transaction fees.

In an earlier blog post, the trading platform decided to extend support for these two tokens to mitigate the risk “from market volatility during the hard fork” as well as secure users’ assets.

The blog further stated that ETH holders can swap their tokens with the two potential forked tokens on Poloniex before Ethereum 2.0 upgrade at a 1:1 ratio or vice versa.

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Justin Sun's Poloniex Exchange Lists Ethereum Forked Tokens 2

The much awaited “merge” refers to the network’s transition to proof of stake which would essentially discontinue ETH mining, upsetting well-known miners like Chandler Guo.

As a result, Guo and his ilk are attempting to launch ETHW in order to allow GPU miners to continue to mine a form of Ethereum.  

If the merge, which is slated to occur on September, goes off smoothly, then Poloniex will automatically convert all ETHS into upgraded, post-merge ETH. And, if during that time, Guo and his followers fail to fork the Ethereum network, Poloniex will suspend and delist ETHW and its related markets, in accordance to the blog post.

Buterin Takes A Jibe At Justin Sun

TRON founder Justin Sun’s latest endorsement also correlates to his tumultuous relationship with Ethereum and the network’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin who take a dig at Sun occasionally.

During South Korea Blockchain event, Ethereum founder, Buterin, without directly referring Justin Sun slammed those trying to push for a hard fork of ETH to retain proof-of-work as “simply trying to make a quick buck.”

Vitalik stated that he has received many support for proof-of-stake from within the community and claimed that most people who intends to keep proof-of-work are “outsiders.”

On the other hand, Chainlink protocol decided to not entertain the forked versions of the Ethereum blockchain and recommended developers and dApp teams to paused smart contract operations to avoid unforeseen incidents and help protect end users.

Ethereum Investor’s Sentiment Plunges Despite Merge Hype – Report

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Ethereum’s upcoming transition to a proof-of-stake [PoS] system which is scheduled for Sept. 19, has been the talk of the town, causing both hype and FOMO over the last week.

And to top that, ETH co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently laid out the next steps in the roadmap for the network with monikers Surge, Verge, Purge, and Splurge.

But as per a data analytics platform Santiment, the hype has so far failed to put any positive impact on the investors’ outlook.

The study highlighted that the asset is trading in severe negative sentiment territory as traders braced for a price drop in the upcoming Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee [FOMC].

The Fed’s meeting is slated to be on 26th and 27 July this week and is expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points, following in the footsteps of June’s rate hike.

The report also pointed out that any price rally of the coin would be short-lived and volatility would persist for some time.

“ETH had an up and down Sunday, jumping above $1,640 before dipping back down to $1,540. The trading crowd continues to not believe the hype and is expecting prices to fall heading into the FOMC meeting. ETH should continue to stay volatile.”

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Ethereum Investor's Sentiment Plunges Despite Merge Hype - Report 4

Ethereum Held On Exchanges Hit A 4-Year Low

In a separate study by Glassnode, Ethereum held on exchanges hit a four-year low after record staking figures on Ethereum 2.0 [the network’s incoming upgrade, recently rebranded to “Consensus Layer”].

Glassnode also found that centralized exchanges [CEX] currently hold over 19 million ETHs. The latest data is a little over 20 million back in July 2018, Glassnode suggested.

The sharp decline in Ethereum held across exchanges is likely due to the increasing number of Eth staked as the network prepares for its biggest upgrade yet.

Chainalysis, a blockchain data tracking platform, also reported similar findings: “The change in ETH held on exchanges experienced the largest one-day decrease in 202 days, decreasing by 432.84k ETH to 249.58k ETH.”

In contrast to the current network, Eth 2.0 is a proof-of-stake [PoS] network where validators stake 32 Eth to verify the network’s integrity.

Ethereum’s Core Dev Hints That the Merge Might Happen in August

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The switch to proof of stake for Ethereum could happen this summer.

Preston Van Loon, an Ethereum core developer, said on a panel at the Permissionless conference that the shift will likely come to a completion in the next three months.

“As far as we know, August, if everything goes according to plan, it just makes sense,” Van Loon added. “If we don’t have to move the difficulty bomb, let’s do it as soon as we can.”

According to a tweet from event co-host Bankless, Ethereum Foundation Justin Drake, who was also on the panel, there is a “strong desire to make this happen before the difficulty bomb in August.”

The much-awaited Ethereum merge

Ethereum core developers decided not to upgrade the network in early May to avoid the so-called “difficulty bomb,” which would soon begin to degrade the network. It’s a blockchain component that purposely slows down the network.

The idea was to push developers to pursue proof of stake while also making it difficult for miners to stay on the proof-of-work chain following the transition. This month, core developers decided not to divert their attention away from The Merge, which is now being tested.
Its successful completion would obviate the need to defuse the difficulty bomb.

Ethereum currently uses a proof-of-work mechanism, in which miners compete to solve complex puzzles in order to validate transactions. This necessitates a significant amount of computer processing power and energy.

Ethereum is meant to become more eco-friendly and efficient by switching to proof-of-stake, where transactions are authenticated by those who contribute, or “stake,” to the network.

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Ethereum’s Core Dev Hints That the Merge Might Happen in August 6

Proof of stake provides various advantages over proof of work in terms of keeping the network secure and decentralized. Proof-of-stake consensus should make it easier to engage in network management, allowing for more profound decentralization and increased security.

But the actual reason people are waiting for The Merge is that it is predicted to reduce ETH issuance by 90%. Less ETH in circulation implies less supply and more demand, which should push the coin’s price upward. According to CoinMarketCap data, 1 ETH is currently trading at $2,024.

Will 2022 be Ethereum’s make-or-break year?

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Ethereum is embarking on a new journey for a more scalable, secure, and sustainable network. The network after the completion of “The Merge” and the arrival of its new consensus mechanism represents a major milestone in its multi-year journey to bring Ethereum 2.0 live.

Some experts are pondering if 2022 will be the “make or break year” for the world’s second-largest blockchain network. Also, can the highly anticipated update to its network trigger a decentralized finance [DeFi] summer for 2022?

According to Ethereum’s website, the merge is scheduled to take place this quarter [Q2 2022]. That said, feverish excitement is building online. Data from Google Trends shows interest in the topic has hit a 12-month high, and the query ” Ethereum Merge” has been searched 100 times on March 28.

Ilan Solot of Tagus Capital Multi-Strategy Fund told in an interview that “FOMO [fear of missing out] is kicking for ETH pre-merge.”

Moreover, widespread coverage of the climate benefits has also contributed. The Ethereum Foundation claimed Ethereum 2.0 will lower carbon emissions to 0.07 kilograms per transaction [roughly 17,000 times more efficient than Bitcoin], making the altcoin the clear favorite for green investors.

What is the Merge?

Ethereum will transform from a proof-of-work [POW] consensus mechanism to a new proof-of-stake [POS] method through the merge.

The blockchain now operates two parallel chains -the legacy “Mainnet” [based on POW] and the new “Beacon Chain” [POS]. Once the two merge, it will migrate to the Beacon Chain, and staking will totally replace mining as the consensus mechanism.

Ethereum merge will reverberate the DeFi world

Analyst Kjetil Hove Pettersen of Kryptovault predicted that ETH will be more volatile than Bitcoin over the course of this year. “Focusing on ETH’s price jumps in the short term may grab headlines, but the real takeaway is the merge’s effect on the broader de-fi ecosystem.”

It is to be noted that Ethereum acts as the base layer for almost 3000 decentralized apps, altcoins such as Shiba Inu to Layer2 scaling solutions like MATIC to metaverse tokens like MANA.

The network also supports numerous non-fungible token projects [NFTs ], and decentralized autonomous organizations [DAOs]. With stakes running high on the merge, the global DeFi community is hoping for a smooth transition.

NFT marketplace launch coming up by GameStop

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The world’s largest retail gaming and trade-in destination, GameStop, has planned to launch its own forum for non-fungible tokens (NFT) and is co-initiating an “up to $100 million” repository for game developers using it.

Gamestop has collaborated with Immutable X, an Ethereum Layer 2 network developer for this launch. The company’s announcement came on Thursday, 3 February 2022, along with the news of when the launch of the Immutable X-powered NFT marketplace is, which would be later this year.

The repository for the grant is named in Immutable X’s IMX tokens, specifically 56,209,850 tokens, that are worth over $200 million at the present prices due to the increase in the price of the IMX tokens. However, the fund is clinched at $100 million.

In addition, Immutable X will contribute up to $150 million in tokens of IMX to GameStop on achieving certain breakthroughs. These milestones are inclusive of the NFT marketplace launch, reaching sales volumes of $1.5 billion and $3 billion on Immutable X within a given time frame.

GameStop recently expressed its enthusiasm for blockchain technology when it advertised for a ‘head of Web3 gaming’ and an array of jobs based on non-fungible tokens. These tokens are usually characterized as a way to determine ownership of items in-game, and let players trade articles outside an authorized marketplace like an in-game auction house. A few games, that are played to earn rewards in the real world, use cryptocurrency and NFTs to operate an in-game economy that converts into real money for the players.

Company behind NFT trading card game, Gods Unchained: Immutable

Immutable, the company behind the NFT trading card game Gods Unchained, is also the company that created Immutable X. Immutable X is a podium based on the most sought-after Ethereum cryptocurrency blockchain. It functions on the Ethereum Layer 2 network, explicitly for NFTs.

Immutable podium is determined to placate the biggest drawbacks of Ethereum, like the enormous amount of energy consumed and the exorbitant gas fees which could add a high transaction cost.

The new protocol incorporates huge numbers of sale records into one particular transaction, written to the Ethereum blockchain; through this, Immutable assures to make up for the environmental expense incurred by carbon offsets.

Why did Ethereum rebrand ‘Eth2’ as the Consensus layer?

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The Ethereum Foundation has now renamed the terms Eth1′ and ‘Eth2 to Execution layer and Consensus layer respectively. Announcing the same, the team behind ethereum.org published a blog on January 24 2022 detailing the change in the terminologies and the reasons behind it while maintaining the roadmap to scale the blockchain in a decentralized way remains unchanged.

As per the blog, the ‘execution layer’ previously called Eth 1.0 is the Proof-of-Work consensus model that is today called Ethereum. On the other hand, the Proof-of-Stake Beacon Chain, which is slated to take over consensus processes after the merging of the two blockchains, will henceforth be known as the ‘consensus layer.’

The crucial step in this regard will be the next merge, where the existing Proof-of-Work chain will unite with the Proof-of-Stake Chain. It is scheduled tentatively for June 2022. But why the name change?

Here’s why Ethereum decided to phase out the term Eth2

As per the blog, one of the major problems with the Eth2 branding is that it creates confusion among new users of Ethereum. ‘They intuitively think that Eth1 comes first and Eth2 comes after. Or that Eth1 ceases to exist once Eth2 exists. Neither of these is true, ‘ the post stated. And removing Eth2 terminology would help future users from navigating this ‘confusing mental model.’

Next, it claims that Eth 2.0 has turned into an inaccurate representation of Ethereum’s roadmap and the new names provide an accurate picture that allows content to reach a broader audience.

Another crucial reason behind the decision to scrap the old names is to eliminate this scam vector where attempts were made by malicious actors to use the Eth2 misnomer to fool users by asking them to swap their ETH for ‘ETH2’ tokens or telling them they must somehow migrate their ETH before the Eth2 upgrade etc.

Further, the team aims to provide clarity to those staking operators who have represented ETH staked on the Beacon Chain with the ‘ETH2’ ticker. On whether the update has any effect on the Ethereum roadmap, the post stated,

“It doesn’t! It’s important to understand that this renaming represents a change in naming only. The features on Ethereum’s current roadmap (i.e. the merge, sharding) and future features will still happen on the same timeline.”

Here comes Ethereum 2.0’s first major testnet- Kintsugi

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Ethereum 2.0 may not be fully operational as of now, however, with the launch of its first major public net Kintsugi, users can get an idea of the network’s functionality. Tim Beiko, an Ethereum developer, first broke the news for the testnet release on the network’s Foundation blog. The latest launch is seen as the final step towards the blockchain’s transition from Proof-of-Work [POW] to Proof-of-Stake [POS] consensus algorithm that is scheduled to take place by the first half of 2022.

As for the name, Kintsugi is a Japanese art of repairing broken objects without attempting to hide the damage, on a philosophical level it emphasizes being transparent about something’s history.

Earlier in 2020, Phase 0 of the upgrade went live with the launch of the Beacon Chain, which would facilitate the bridge of the current network to the new one. In addition to that, billions of dollars in ETH have already been staked to the new network. To prepare for the merge, developers have created four temporary testnets designed to mimic the mainnet once it transitions to the proof of stake protocol. Further, in the blog Tim Beiko stated,

“The Kintsugi testnet provides the community an opportunity to experiment with post-merge Ethereum and begin to identify any issues. Once feedback has been incorporated into the client software and the specifications, a final series of testnets will be launched. In parallel, testing efforts will continue ramping up. After this, existing long-lived testnets will run through The Merge. Once these have upgraded and are stable, next up is Ethereum mainnet’s transition to proof of stake”

Interestingly, the news of the announcement for the testnet going live appears to have been previously posted back on Thursday, Dec. 16. Nevertheless, ETH Developers have made much progress towards the highly anticipated ETH 2.0 merge.

Ethereum 2.0 Merge in First Half of 2022

As mentioned earlier, the merge is slated to commence between the first six months of 2022. Following that, Ethereum 2.0 will move toward “Phase 2.” This will introduce Sharding, a scalability feature that is aimed at improving fees and transaction times and is expected to arrive in late 2022. As per a November report from ConsenSys over 8.4 million ETH has been staked on Ethereum 2.0’s beacon chain.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin unveils the Roadmap for ETH 2.0

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Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his vision on the future of ETH 2.0 and provided a detailed roadmap on how to revamp the platform by making it acceptably trustless and censorship-resistant. Revealing more on the blog post dubbed Endgame, Buterin offered his insight on the plausible strategy of transforming a big blockchain that is denoted by its high block frequency, equally high block size, and thousands of transactions per second, into highly decentralized in terms of block validation and preventing the block operators from censoring.

Even though Buterin’s blog does not explicitly deal with the issue of centralization of block production, it still provides a work plan for its implementation. At first, the founder writes about a second-tier staking solution, which requires fewer resources to execute distributed block validation. On the security aspect, Buterin suggested the implementation of fraud proofs or ZK-SNARKs to enable users to check the validity of the block directly and in turn, save cost. In addition to that, he mentions introducing data availability sampling to led ‘users check block availability and add secondary transaction channels to prevent censorship’.

Ethereum’s Rollup-focused roadmap

With respect to the block production remaining centralized, Buterin opined that it would still persist even after the implementation of Rollups. For the uninitiated, rollups are basically layer-two protocols that execute transactions outside of the main chain of Ethereum.

According to Buterin, decentralization may not be long lasting due to the possibility of cross-domain Maximal [formerly Miner] extractable revenue [MEV]. As the name suggest MEV refers to the maximum amount of value that can be earned by the miners from creating block apart from the standard block rewards and gas fees. Explaining in detail, the founder noted,

There’s a high chance that block production will end up centralized: either the network effects within rollups or the network effects of cross-domain MEV push us in that direction in their own different ways. But what we can do is use protocol-level techniques such as committee validation, data availability sampling and bypass channels to regulate this market, ensuring that the winners cannot abuse their power.

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Summing up, the Ethereum co-founder said that the advantage of this rollup-centric roadmap is ‘open to all futures, and does not have to commit to an opinion about which one will necessarily win.’

What are Ethereum [ETH]’s investors anticipating?

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It’s been a mixed week for the overall crypto market. Ethereum [ETH], for one, registered a near 3% dip in a span of 24 hours, struggling to breach the $5k mark. The world’s second-largest crypto-asset witnessed a price pullback following the Security and Exchange Commission [SEC]’s decision to reject a spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund [ETF] yesterday.

However, Santiment observed that Ethereum’s supply on exchanges declined by 15.66%, suggesting a lesser chance of sell-off and increased prospects of an upward price movement. The on-chain platform compared the data a year ago and found that the metric stood at 23.29% then, indicating investors are not keen to indulge in a selling spree despite its ongoing price consolidation, further fuelling hope for bullish price action. Commenting on the same, Santimnent noted,

Ethereum’s supply on exchanges sits at 15.66%. One year ago, this number sat at 23.29%. It’s clear that more and more ETH is moving safely to cold wallets for DeFi-related activity and holding, an encouraging sign for long-term price prospects.

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Interestingly a few days ago, the price of the leading altcoin was nearing close to its all-time high. Tronweekly had reported the possibility of a supply squeeze condition that was driving the price factor upward. This was due to the staking contract hitting more than 8 million ETH and another 8 million tokens locked across the DeFi protocols.

But high transaction fees continued to plague the overall network driving users and enterprises to opt for other cost-effective options. However, that did not deter ETH advocates from believing that the token is poised for a brighter future and even has the ability to challenge the dominance of the current largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin [BTC]. One of them is Kenneth Griffin.

Ethereum vs Bitcoin

CEO of the US hedge fund firm, Citadel, Kenneth Griffin recently spoke on the future of the cryptocurrency and predicted that Ethereum will soon replace the king coin’s overall dominance in the digital asset market. Moreover, other speculators are of the opinion that the leading altcoin will rise higher due to its varied use cases and the proposed transition to Proof-of-Stake protocol that will significantly bring down the transaction fees as well as the time.

Ethereum [ETH] see a double-digit price drop as market bleeds red

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As the week came to a close, the entire cryptocurrency market faced the wrath of the bear. Most tokens witnessed their price supports take a hit with many investors seeing it as an opportunity to “buy the dip”. Up until last week, altcoins were performing better than Bitcoin but it looks like the world’s largest altcoin was doing a better job fending the bear now.

On Friday, Ethereum took a hit with a daily drop of over 7 percent. This red bleed leaked into the weekly rate as the loss percentage shot up to 17 percent. At the time of writing, ETH was trading for $2855.92 while holding a market cap of $336.84 billion. The latest bear crash took a massive chunk out of the daily trading volume, clocking in at $19.2 billion.

Ethereum’s crash was also accompanied by a lot of people moving into DeFi investments. New investments were still coming in from supporters and crypto organizations.

Ethereum 1 hour:

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Ethereum [ETH] see a double-digit price drop as market bleeds red 11

The largest altcoin had its work cut out as the last red candle shattered immediate price supports. After the day’s price crunch, the new support was formed at $2872.

Relative Strength Index: The RSI fell below the oversold threshold just as the bear broke Ethereum’s price support. Massive sell offs are a part of major price crunches as displayed in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Chaikin Money Flow: Ethereum’s CMF followed the RSI’s footsteps by crashing abruptly. The fall below the zero line signified that the capital leaving the market had overtaken the influx.

Parabolic SAR: All the markers for the day stayed above the price candles as the last candle dropped an entire level.

Ethereum 1 day:

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Ethereum [ETH] see a double-digit price drop as market bleeds red 12

In the long term, Ethereum’s recent crash paled in comparison to earlier drops. The support on the daily spectrum held near the $1700 mark, a marker created in July.

Chaikin Money Flow: Ethereum broke its bullish pattern by crashing below the zero line. Daily trading investments have decreased significantly since climbing to good heights in mid-August.

Parabolic SAR: The markers stayed above for the entirety of September with the latest crash contributing to the momentum shift. A price increase would enable the cryptocurrency to move into greener pastures.

Relative Strength Index: The sudden change in investor sentiment was on full show with the k-curve. The number of users selling their ETH tokens had surpassed the number of HODLers.