The Ethereum Foundation made the announcement on November 24 that the developers working on the platform had reached a consensus on eight Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP) to investigate as part of the Shanghai update. This update is the next major upgrade following the Merge and the transition to proof-of-stake consensus.
Beacon Chain staked Ether (ETH) is scheduled to be unlocked as one of the primary features that are anticipated to be included in the Shanghai hard fork. This will make it possible for the assets to be withdrawn along with the upgrade, which means that users who had staked Ethereum prior to the Merge will be able to access those tokens in addition to any other rewards that may be available.
According to a prior roadmap, unlocked ETH was supposed to become available between 6 and 12 months following the Merge.
One of the ideas that was accepted is known as EIP 4844. This proposal focuses on using proto-danksharding technology, and it is anticipated that it would increase network throughput while simultaneously reducing transaction costs, which will be a big gain for scalability.
Other EIPs, such as EIP 3540, EIP 3670, EIP 4200, EIP 4570, and EIP 5450, deal with the modernization of Ethereum Virtual Machines.
One of the most-anticipated updates for the community is the Shanghai testnet version, which was given the name Shandong and went live on October 18. This version enables developers to work on implementations such as the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) object format. This update is one of the most-anticipated updates because it separates coding from data, which may be beneficial for on-chain validators.
Introducing theEIP NFTs. Only authors of finalized Ethereum Improvement Proposals can mint these new NFTs that represent their contributions to Ethereum as a whole. This is a way to, not only recognize, but retroactively fund the work of the developers and philosophers that make the Ethereum ecosystem what it is. How will the market value these EIP NFTs? That’s what the experiment is about.
Related Reading | Why This Crypto Billionaire Abandoned Ethereum
Before we get into EIP NFTs, what’s anEthereum Improvement Proposal? According to the project’s documentation:
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“Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) are standards specifying potential new features or processes for Ethereum. EIPs contain technical specifications for the proposed changes and act as the “source of truth” for the community. Network upgrades and application standards for Ethereum are discussed and developed through the EIP process.”
4/ Each NFT that gets minted implements #ERC2981 which means that royalties will be paid in perpetuity to the minting address (i.e. EIP author).
The artwork is heavily inspired by @Uniswap v3 LP NFTS by @crypt0glitter. You can see the collection here: https://t.co/ba5hBSH7n0
— blainemalone (@blainemalone) November 17, 2021
Retroactive Public Goods And The Results Oracle
Before we get to EIP NFTs, we have to explore the Retroactive Public Goods idea. As with everything in the Ethereum ecosystem, this comes from the mind of Vitalik Buterin. “The core principle behind the concept of retroactive public goods funding is simple: it’s easier to agree on what was useful than what will be useful,” Vitalik explains inthe article that poses the idea. The Optimism PBC organization expands the idea.
“So… what would happen if suddenly, exits did exist for public goods projects? An exit determined by how much public good has been created by the project rather than quarterly profit. Would we see more vigorous investment and innovation on technology that maximizes community benefit? Would we see more nonprofits thriving rather than surviving?”
We’re LIVE on Ethereum mainnet! 🎉
EIP Authors can now claim their EIP NFTs representing their contributions.https://t.co/zMgKr3eWVC
— aka labs (@aka_labs_) November 17, 2021
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How to answer those rhetorical questions? The article offers a solution, again in Vitalik’s own words.
“A DAO, which we can call “the Results Oracle”, funds public good projects. Long term, the results oracle can be funded by protocol fees (eg. if implemented by an L2 project, sequencer auctions are one candidate). But unlike other public goods funding DAOs, the Results Oracle funds projects retroactively, rewarding projects that it recognizes as having already provided value.”
ETH price chart for 11/24/2021 on FTX | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
What Are The EIP NFTs, then?
The people behind the AKA Labs took the Retroactive Public Goods concept and stripped it of complications. They developed a first implementation that doesn’t need to raise funds or to create a DAO. Let’sread their explanation.
“Acknowledging the fact that building a fully functional “results oracle” would be a large undertaking. This project dips its toes in and tries to shine a light on the space.
The fun part of this experiment is observing how the market decides to value each EIP NFT. We fully encourage EIP authors to mint their NFT/NFTs and participate in the experiment.”
To mint EIP NFTs “users must prove that they’ve authored/co-authored an EIP.” So far,nine of them exist, but they haven’t produced any financial activity. This is where the Ethereum community comes into play. The process of valuation starts with them. By making offers and funding the retroactive recognition themselves, they will define how much each of the NFTs is worth. Will the most important proposals get a higher valuation? Or will the community value them all similarly?
Related Reading | Christie’s Will Auction Original Art From Gary Vee‘s Veefriends NFT Collection
It’sworth noting that“each NFT that gets minted implements #ERC2981 which means that royalties will be paid in perpetuity to the minting address.” The minting goes through the EIP’s author address, AKA labs don’t get a cut. The project is a nonprofit, just like the projects they’re trying to help thrive.
Will the EIP NFTs experiment succeed or fall by the wayside? That’s for the Ethereum community to decide.
Featured Image: Screenshot from the EIP NFTs Open Sea page | Charts by TradingView
Ethereum’s forthcoming London upgrade, containing the highly-anticipated Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, has been deployed on the Ropsten testnet.
Following the June 24 launch on Ropsten, London is now expected to progress through Ethereum’s Goerli, Rinkeby, and Kovan testnets at roughly weekly intervals — from which point the Ethereum community expects a date for mainnet deployment to firm up.
The new upgrade will see transaction fees burned. According EIP-1559 tracking website, Watch the Burn, roughly 88,500 testnet ETH nominally worth $177.6 million has been burned on Ropsten over the day since London’s deployment.
The high rate of Ether being burned on Ropsten has reignited discussion regarding whether EIP-1559 will render Ethereum deflationary — where more ETH is destroyed than new supply enters into circulation — and what this could mean for Ethereum’s price moving forward.
700 per day is the estimated low. Will burn 250000 ETH annually. Decreasing supply. 6000 per day will burn 2 million each year. Excited.
— Caesar’s Palace (@CeasarBlue92) June 24, 2021
However, EIP-1559 is not the only upgrade that the community is looking forward to from London, with David Mihal of CryptoFees describing EIP-3074 as “fixing one of Ethereum’s most overlooked security issues” to do with approvals.
One of the most overlooked security issues in Ethereum is ERC20 approvals.
I’ve given up on my push for ERC777 to fix this… Our next chance to fix this is EIP-3074.
3074 will allow a user to approve a transfer, execute an action, then revoke the approval all in 1 transaction. https://t.co/zk52JtYaAj
— David Mihal (@dmihal) June 24, 2021
Related:A London tour guide: What the EIP-1559 hard fork promises for Ethereum
Coincidentally or not, crypto data aggregator, CryptoQuant, identified that 100,000 Ether had been deposited into Eth2’s staking contract around the same time as the launch, worth roughly $200 million.
CryptoQuant also noted that more than 5% of ETH’s supply is currently locked in staking worth approximately $11.75 billion.
Over 100k ETH staked in ETH 2.0 yesterday
Read more in Quicktakehttps://t.co/XNyCB3wbQ6 pic.twitter.com/oovBdeIM2C
— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) June 24, 2021
Ether (ETH) has outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) by 32% since May and even though there has been a steady flow of bullish reports from JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, derivatives metrics show elements of bearishness in both assets.
Ether and Bitcoin price change since May. Source: TradingView
Bitcoin is trading 41% below its $64,900 all-time high and that move has driven the “Crypto Fear and Greed Index” to the lowest level since March 2020. While retail fears the dip, professionals such as global investment firm Guggenheim Investments have filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for a new fund that may seek exposure to Bitcoin.
Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller reiterated his bullish stance on Bitcoin when he said:
“I think BTC has won the store of value game because it’s a brand, it’s been around for 13-14 years and it has a finite supply”.
Ethereum network momentum has been outstanding
Ethereum overtook Bitcoin in terms of miner revenue and network value transacted right as a report from Goldman Sachs revealed the global investment bank believes that Ether has a “high chance of overtaking Bitcoin as a dominant store of value.” The report noted the growth of the decentralized finance sector and the non-fungible token ecosystems being built on Ethereum.
Bitcoin and Ethereum network miners revenue, USD. Source: CoinMetrics
Notice how Ethereum miners’ revenue significantly outpaced Bitcoin’s in May, reaching a $76 million daily average. This figure leapfrogged Bitcoin’s $45 million in miners revenue, including the 6.25 subsidy per block, plus transaction fees.
A similar situation happened in the amount transacted and transferred on each network. For the first time, Ethereum presented a significant advantage according to this metric.
Bitcoin and Ethereum network average daily transactions, USD. Source: CoinMetrics
The chart above shows the Ethereum network settling $25 billion per day on average, which is 85% higher than Bitcoin’s. Stablecoins certainly played an important role, but so did the $50 billion net value locked in decentralized finance applications.
The futures premium is slightly bearish
When measuring the futures contract premium, both Bitcoin and Ether display similar levels of bearishness. The basis rate measures the difference between longer-term futures contracts and the current spot market levels.
The one-month futures contract usually trades with 10%–20% premium versus regular spot exchanges to justify locking the funds instead of immediately cashing out.
OKEx Bitcoin and Ether futures annualized premium (basis). Source: Skew
As depicted above, the futures premium has been below 10% since the May 19 crash for both Bitcoin and Ether. This indicates a slight bearishness, although far from a negative indicator, known as backwardation.
Ether’s 25% delta skew signals “fear”
To assess Ether trader’s optimism, one should look at the 25% delta skew. The metric will turn positive when the neutral-to-bearish put options premium is higher than similar-risk call options. This situation is usually considered a “fear” scenario. On the other hand, a negative skew translates to a higher cost of upside protection and points toward bullishness.
Ether options 25% delta skew. Source: Laevitas.ch
Similar to the futures premium, Ether options 25% delta skew has been ranging above 10% since May 19. This indicates that market makers and whales are unwilling to offer downside protection, indicating “fear”.
Albeit distant from a highly adverse situation, both Ether derivatives indicators point to a complete lack of bullishness, despite the altcoin 270% gain year-to-date.
In the face of this disappointing data, some analysts will find the “glass half full” as it leaves room for a positive surprise. The Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559, or EIP-1559, expected for July, will create a base network fee that would fluctuate based on network demand. The update also proposes to burn transaction fees, thereby introducing deflation to the Ethereum ecosystem. OKEx analyst Rick Delaney stated that it “may enhance the asset’s appeal among the planet’s wealthiest investors.”
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of theauthorand do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Can a new non-fungible token (NFT) platform finally solve the problem of ecosystem-wide royalties?
NFT platform Recur announced on Thursday a $5 million seed round led by the DeFi Alliance, Delphi Digital, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, and Gemini, among others.
The raise claims a number of notable superlatives, including the first seed investment in the NFT ecosystem from industry veteran Gary Vaynerch, as well as the largest seed round ever for a NFT project (Dapper Labs has raised many multiples more money over its three year fundraising history, but largely in Series A rounds).
Currently there are a number of platforms that allow NFTs to impart royalties to artists after every secondary market sale, including Foundation, Zora, and Euler Beats developer Treum. Recur’s key innovation will be a ERC token standard that will allow royalties to function regardless of platform.
“RECUR’s technical team is involved in the official process for Ethereum improvements (EIP), and our technology will be implemented at the blockchain layer,” said Recur CEO Zach Bruch. “By doing this it will allow the NFTs minted on our platform to move freely around the ecosystem while still generating recurring royalties for the owners and IP holders. Ultimately, our goal is to make NFTs chain-agnostic and keep NFTs and royalties decentralized.”
Bruch did not reference a specific EIP his team is working on. Similar proposals, such as EIP-2981, which adds standard royalty functionality to the ERC-721 NFT standard, are also in the works.
While the NFT space is growing increasingly crowded (and Recur’s royalties will presumably be applicable ecosystem wide) one other way to stand out is through headline-grabbing licensing and intellectual property acquisition. To that end, Recur is bringing some former media industry heft to the fore via former Disney executives Stephen Teglas and Chris Heatherly. Teglas in particular held a position with Disney’s Licensing department.
“RECUR is working with some of the largest brands in the world which will be announced in the coming months,” said Bruch. “We are exclusively working with Blue Chip brands to help them bring their IP to the largest audiences possible.”
The press release says the first Recur “brand experience” will be released in the summer of 2021.
