The Ethereum community is eagerly awaiting the upcoming Shanghai hard fork, which is expected to take place on the mainnet in March. In preparation for this event, the Ethereum blockchain’s Sepolia testnet underwent a successful upgrade on February 28th. The upgrade, dubbed “Shapella”, was designed to simulate the upcoming fork and test its functionality.
One of the most significant changes in the Shapella upgrade is the ability for validators to withdraw their staked Ether (stETH) from the Beacon Chain back to the execution layer. Previously, validators needed to stake a minimum of 32 ETH to validate on the Ethereum blockchain. However, with this upgrade, validators will now be able to withdraw rewards in excess of 32 ETH and continue validating. Those who wish to fully withdraw their staked ETH can take all 32 ETH plus rewards and cease validating.
The successful implementation of the Shapella upgrade on the Sepolia testnet is an encouraging sign for the Ethereum community, as it indicates that the upcoming Shanghai hard fork will likely proceed smoothly on the mainnet. However, before the hard fork can go live on the mainnet, it must first be released on the Ethereum Goerli testnet.
The Goerli testnet is an important testing ground for Ethereum upgrades, as it allows developers to test new features and upgrades in a sandboxed environment before deploying them on the mainnet. The release of the Shapella upgrade on the Goerli testnet is expected to commence in March, giving developers ample time to test the upgrade and ensure its compatibility with the Ethereum ecosystem.
Overall, the successful upgrade of the Sepolia testnet for the upcoming Shanghai hard fork is a promising development for the Ethereum community. With this upgrade, validators will have more flexibility in managing their staked ETH, which will ultimately lead to a more efficient and secure network. As the Ethereum ecosystem continues to evolve and grow, the community can look forward to more exciting upgrades and developments in the future.
Etherscan is the most trusted tool for navigating through all the public data on the Ethereum blockchain and is sometimes called “Ethplorer.” This data includes transaction data, wallet addresses, smart contracts and much more. The application is self-contained and is neither sponsored nor administered by the Ethereum Foundation, which is a non-profit organization.
The team behind Etherscan includes seasoned developers and industry professionals, who developed the Etherscan app to make the Ethereum blockchain more accessible to everyday users.
Although Etherscan is a centralized platform, the app does make it easier for people to search through the Ethereum blockchain.
Is Etherscan a wallet?
Etherscan is not an Ethereum wallet, nor is it a wallet service provider. Users don’t receive an Etherscan wallet when they search the Ethereum blockchain on Etherscan.
Etherscan.io is an independent Ethereum-based block explorer. The Etherscan app keeps track of blockchain transactions on the Ethereum network. The app then displays the results like a search engine.
This allows users to find the details of transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, which may give someone peace of mind if their transferred funds have not yet appeared in their wallet.
While Etherscan can track the activity on an Ethereum wallet address, users will need to link the app to an existing crypto wallet to do so.
You may wonder — Is Etherscan free to use? Yes, Etherscan is completely free.
What is Etherscan used for?
Etherscan allows users to view the assets held on any public Ethereum wallet address. Using Etherscan, enter any Ethereum address into the search box to see the current balance and transaction history of the wallet under consideration. Etherscan will also display any gas fees and smart contracts involving that address.
Users can use Etherscan to:
Calculate Ethereum gas fees with the Etherscan gas tracker
Lookup and verify smart contracts
View the crypto assets held in or associated with a public wallet address
Observe live transactions taking place on the Ethereum blockchain
Lookup a single transaction made from any Ethereum wallet
Discover which smart contracts have a verified source code and security audit
Keep track of how many smart contracts a user has authorized with their wallet
Review and revoke access to a wallet for any decentralized applications (DApps)
Users can view any transaction of the Ethereum blockchain on Etherscan. These transactions include failed and pending transactions.
Etherscan can also keep track of the progress of an incoming transfer. One way to track a transaction using Etherscan is to look it up on Etherscan.io using its hash key. The hash provides users with an estimate of how long the transaction will take to confirm. The page refreshes once the transaction is complete.
Etherscan also works as an analytics platform. Anyone can use Etherscan to analyze on-chain metrics like changes to Ether (ETH) gas costs, as well as keep track of their portfolio and monitor their transaction history for suspicious activity.
Only information that is public on the Ethereum blockchain is displayed on Etherscan, so information like a user’s private keys can’t be viewed on the app. Etherscan doesn’t store any private keys and is not involved in any of the transactions shown. The app also cannot be used to solve a transaction failure.
Do users need an account to use Etherscan?
Users are not required to sign up for an account before using the Etherscan app. However, signing up for an Etherscan account does give users access to additional features. These features include the ability to track addresses and receive notifications whenever a transaction occurs. Developers may also sign up to gain free access to Etherscan’s blockchain explorer data and application programming interfaces (APIs).
Thus, users with accounts can add their addresses to the “watch list” on the block explorer to monitor or track their investments. Users can also set alerts so that they’re notified of every incoming transaction via email. Etherscan also provides API services for developers so that they can create decentralized applications.
Etherscan provides the following information for all incoming and outgoing transactions:
Transaction hash
Number of blocks within which the transaction was recorded and the time at which the transaction was confirmed
Sender and receiver addresses
Gas fee
Amount sent
Total transaction fee
How does Etherscan work?
To use Etherscan, simply enter any public Ethereum wallet address into the search field at the top of the Etherscan.io homepage. Doing so will allow users to view all the transactions associated with that address.
Viewing a transaction and wallet on Etherscan
Exploring a wallet address on Etherscan under the “Transactions” tab will show a list of all ETH transactions (Txns), or transactions that have used gas (Gwei) associated with that specific wallet.
Type the wallet address on Etherscan’s homepage and click “Search” to be redirected to a page that displays all of that wallet’s information. The data will include its ETH balance and its value denominated in United States dollar, as well as an overview of the wallet’s transaction history.
Click on the wallet’s Transactions tab, which will open up a new page displaying details on all the transactions involving that address. Details include the transaction ID, block height and when the transaction was confirmed.
The block height refers to the block in which the transaction was included. The sender and recipient addresses and the total transaction fee are shown as well.
To explore and track a single transaction, users will need the transaction hash or transaction ID, or TxHash. A TxHash is a unique string of numbers that identifies a transaction on the blockchain.
When users input the TxHash into the Etherscan search bar, a list of information on that transaction will be populated on the page. From here, users can go to the Transactions tab to review additional information about the said transaction. Such data includes whether the transaction status was successful, pending or failed, as well as the total amount that was transferred.
The value of the transaction in ETH, as well as the USD value of ETH at the time of the transaction, can also be viewed. Etherscan also displays the timestamp for each transaction in addition to the transaction cost, denominated in USD.
How to use the Etherscan gas tracker?
“Gas” refers to the transaction fee associated with a transaction to be executed successfully on the Ethereum blockchain. Transaction costs on Ethereum are referred to as gas fees.
Ethereum’s network can get highly congested. When a considerable amount of traffic is running on Ethereum’s blockchain due to Ethereum’s auction-based model, the average gas price goes up as users compete against one another and bid to have their transactions included in the next block. Consequently, transactions are delayed and some transactions fail.
Gas prices vary depending on the block that the user transaction has been included in, as well as the degree of network congestion. Moreover, users may not be able to discern an accurate estimate of the gas fees they’ll be required to pay before initiating a transaction.
To determine a transaction’s gas fees with accuracy, it’s best to use Etherscan’s gas tracker. Etherscan’s gas tracker does more than simply show users the difference in gas prices at various time intervals. It’s also useful for estimating how congested the network is and what the transaction cost will be per transaction.
The Etherscan gas tracker functions as an ETH gas calculator. It examines pending transactions on the Ethereum blockchain to determine how much gas a transaction will require.
Users receive a gas fee estimate so they can adjust the timing of their transactions to avoid high network traffic. Doing so saves transaction costs and allows for cheaper and smoother transactions, without suffering the anxiety that comes with not knowing whether a transaction will fail or succeed.
How to use Etherscan to check the wallet balance and history?
To see how the balance in a user’s wallet has changed over time, look up the address of the wallet on Etherscan and select “Analytics.” From here, users can see the data analytics of a user’s wallet, such as the user’s ETH balance, the entire transfer history, transactions and fees paid.
Using Etherscan to review smart contracts and wallet access
Smart contracts can be read and edited without the need for special permissions by using the Etherscan app’s “Read Contract” and “Write Contract” features. These tabs provide real-time information on various tokens and smart contracts. Users may also use these features to initiate a token transfer and approve smart contract transactions.
Removing a token’s access to the user’s wallet can be achieved using Etherscan’s Token Approval Checker. When users interact with DApps to buy or swap tokens, they tap directly into a user’s wallet with their permission. Therefore, DApps are an appealing target for scammers looking to gain access to users’ Ethereum wallet addresses.
If users see suspicious activity or believe that a DApp has been compromised, they can use Etherscan to revoke its access to a specific wallet address. The user’s assets inside the wallet will not be lost, but users will need to reauthorize the tokens when they access the DApp the next time around.
To use Etherscan to review a user’s approved token list, look up the user’s wallet address on Etherscan’s Token Approval Checker. Doing so will provide users with a list of all approved smart contract interactions with that wallet. From there, users can connect their wallet to Etherscan and click “revoke” to ensure that the specific DApp no longer has access to the user’s wallet.
The road ahead
Etherscan is one of the leading tools for accessing reliable Ethereum blockchain data. Etherscan can review smart contract code, track gas prices and monitor the Ethereum blockchain in real time.
Finally, Etherscan is free and doesn’t require a user to register to access all of its features. Overall, it’s a great place to start for users who would like to learn the full range of functionalities of a blockchain, as well as their Ethereum wallet and what information they can garner from a blockchain explorer.
Ethereum is having difficulty keeping its richest investors in line as its native token Ether (ETH) hints at logging more losses in the near term.
Blockchain data analytics service Glassnode revealed that the number of Ether addresses that hold at least 1,000 ETH dropped to 6,292 this Monday, the lowest reading since April 2017. At its year-to-date peak, the numbers were 7,239 in January.
Number of Ethereum addresses with balance of at least 1K ETH. Source: Glassnode
On-chain analysts typically observe Ether distributions among addresses to realize retail and institutional sentiments. They consider wallets that hold above 1,000 ETH (around $3.92 million at currency exchange rates) as “whales,” primarily for their ability to influence interim market trends via large sell/buy orders.
But as the numbers of these so-called whales drop, it reflects an ongoing selling trend among the richest Ethereum wallet owners. For instance, the number of Ether addresses that hold at least 10,000 ETH (or around $39.20 million) has also plunged, from 1,208 in June to 1,156 at the time of this writing, marking an almost 4.5% decline.
Number of Ethereum addresses with balance of at least 10K ETH. Source: Glassnode
But, on a year-to-date timeframe, the numbers have gone up from 1,065 to 1,156, just as the cost to purchase one Ether, in the same period, has jumped nearly 450%.
Small investors are accumulating
Unlike whales, wallets that hold Ethereum tokens in small quantities have been at the forefront of Ether’s 2021 price rally.
For example, Glassnode’s data shows that the number of Ether addresses with a non-zero ETH balance reached an all-time high of over 71.23 million on Monday. That included wallets with at least 0.01 ETH (~$40), whose numbers shot up to 20.31 million versus 10.66 million at the beginning of this year.
Meanwhile, addresses that hold at least 0.1 ETH (~$400) jumped to 6.44 million this Monday compared to 3.62 million on Jan. 1, 2021. That is almost a twofold rise, signaling a higher retail interest in the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency.
Number of Ethereum addresses with balance of at least 0.1 ETH. Source: Glassnode
ETH eyes bullish reversal
The latest decline in Ethereum whales appeared as Ether struggled to close decisively above $4,000, its psychological resistance level.
On Tuesday, ETH/USD dropped by over 3.27% to an intraday low of $3,880. Its drop came as a part of a wider correction that started after Ether tested a downward sloping trendline as resistance on Dec. 23.
The chart below shows that the trendline is a part of a descending channel that appears like a “falling wedge.”
In detail, falling wedges are technically bullish reversal patterns that appear after the price trends lower inside a trading range featuring two converging trendlines. The instrument in concern eventually breaks above the structure’s upper trendline ahead or after reaching the apex (where two trendlines converge).
The profit target in a rising wedge scenario is generally obtained after adding the maximum distance between the structure’s upper and lower trendline to the breakout point. That puts the ETH price en route to the $4,200-5,000 range, depending on its breakout level.
Nevertheless, Ether’s price still has enough room to decline, toward $3,200 in the worst-case scenario. The level is where Wedge’s trendlines converge.
Related: 3 reasons why Ethereum price can drop below $3K by the end of 2021
Meanwhile, independent market analyst Pentoshi says that nothing concrete can be predicted for Ether now as it remains stuck between a “bear contested” and a “bull contested” area, as shown in the chart below.
“Maybe it’s the bottom. Don’t care,” tweeted Pentoshi on Tuesday.
“I don’t like when them market gives this many times to buy an area with important historical context like this Would rather pay for confirmation.”
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem built around the Ethereum blockchain is seeing an increased embrace, according to the quarterly report from ConsenSys. This has culminated in an upsurge in the total number of addresses linked to DeFi, which grew by 65% to 2.91 million from the end of Q1 to the end of Q2.
Metrics to Measure Ethereum’s Growth
The growth in the Ethereum blockchain per the ConsenSys report can be measured by additional metrics beyond the number of addresses recorded. The activities on the Metamask wallet are also a viable indicator of the DeFi activity/growth.
the report reads:
“Another metric to gauge DeFi usage is the number of monthly active users on MetaMask, which is the leading non-custodial wallet on Ethereum. By June 1, 2021, MetaMask monthly active users surpassed 7.3 million. This is in part due to the growth of DeFi applications on other Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible networks that users can access via MetaMask, like BSC and Polygon,”
The report also highlighted that Ethereum-based stablecoins, fiat currency pegged digital tokens whose value does not fluctuate, have surged 60% from the end of Q1 2021. “Stablecoin supply continued to grow at a rapid pace in Q2 2021, now representing a total issuance of nearly $65 billion,” according to the report.
The Ethereum blockchain has seen other innovative protocols emerge with the big names, including lending protocol Aave and decentralised exchange (DEX) Uniswap. The report noted that the total transaction volume processed by combining these trading platforms in the second quarter came in at $343 billion.
Triggers for Increasing Growth: London Hardfork in View
The London Hardfork is just a few days away. The changes in Ethereum’s gas fee structure and the deflationary model the new upgrade will usher in can help reduce transaction fees and make the blockchain more usable.
Should this projection come through, the overall performance of the protocols built atop the Ethereum blockchain is bound to shoot up.
The decentralized lending platform built on the Ethereum blockchain,Aavesays thatit will scale itsDeFi platformbeyond its blockchain by joining several sidechains, including Polygon.
Aave Addresses Transaction Fees
Block space supply today is scarce and limited, leading to the massive expansion of assets on the Ethereum blockchain. Since the “DeFi Summer” of 2020, demand for using Ethereum and DeFi has never slowed down, with more than $43 billion of total value locked within the industry’s leading platforms.
While the future ofDeFilooks bright, the demand for Ethereum and DeFi led to high transaction fees. These issues have increased congestion and gas prices, which have affected the projects it initially helped succeed.
Aave acknowledges high fees are a feature of “a successful public blockchain” since they indicate users are willing to pay the price in exchange for services, but alternative solutions are required.
Layer 2 Proof-of-Stake Sidechain
The DeFi lending protocol will port its platform to Polygon, a layer 2 proof-of-stake sidechain — previously referred to asMatic Network— to address the high transaction fees on Ethereum. The sidechain enables users to send back and forth tokens via a bridge protocol, thereby offering lower transaction costs than Ethereum itself provides.
The mechanism on Ethereum will enable tokens from the layer 1 mainchain to be utilized in another blockchain. Still, it can be moved back to the original chain if required.
Aave says that immediately after its platform is available on Polygon, native assets (MATIC) will be added to the collateral list. MATIC, USDC, USDT, WETH, DAI, AAVE, and WBTC are the assets used as collateral on Polygon-based Aave markets at launch.
Aave also noted that it would use a smart-contract bridge to seamlessly port assets from one network to another, soon available. They will have a superior standard of safety for the protocol price feeds since Polygon is a network powered by Chainlink.
Superior Levels
The Aave protocol intends to proceed in putting up synergies with exterior projects to have an Aave Market in all venues that matter. The blockchain firm believes there is no need for a “winner-takes-all” scalability solution, allowing for better freedom of choice for users.
Aave’s integration with Polygon will ensure users enjoy faster transactions, more scalability, and lower gas prices, further boosting the platform to superior levels as the crypto market continues to advance.
The step is the “first wave” in Aave Protocol’s “New Frontiers” analysis mission, aiming to allow it to build synergies with other projects and further expand to a multi-market approach to secure future protocol advancement.
Layer 2is one of the clear trends in the crypto community in 2021. Some other popular Layer 2 solutions at present include Optimism, ZK Sync, Arbitrum, and Starkex.
Famous actor, former NFL player, and AGT’s host Terry Crews haslaunchedhis social currency, $POWER, on the Ethereum blockchain.
The TV Star Brings You $Power
The ‘Everybody Hates Chris’ star sent out atweetthat included the link to TechCrunch’sexclusiveabout the launch. In the interview with TechCrunch, Crews said that if one buys $POWER, they acquire a piece of him, stating there’s no other way to put it.
Terry Crews said that the primary purpose behind the launch of his social currency is to uplift artists. According to the TechCrunch exclusive, Crews eventually plans to give out loans to content creators with no interest imposed whatsoever.
The game show host stated, “That’s our long-term plan…….to become this thing that this community can live and exist in. You could use it anywhere you are…”
Celebrities In the Line of Crypto
Terry Crews joins a small list of celebrities who are buying in the idea of owning crypto titles. Award-winning artist Akon launched his digital currency, Akoin, which recently landed into Kenyan people’s portfolio. Akon also plans to use Akoin in his City currently under construction in Senegal, terming the City as a ‘real-life Wakanda.
According to the interview, Crews said that he drew hisinspirationof creating his currency from a situation he had in Milan. He had a ‘fiasco’ while purchasing furniture made by one of his most loved artists Salone Del Mobile.
He was short on the buying price and had to undergo several struggle situations to make the purchase finally. Crews vowed never to allow anyone to go through what he experienced, and he wants to bring the power back to content creators.
NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie went through a tug of war with the Basketball association to tokenize his contract. Dinwiddie isencouragingathletes to do business with their earnings to avoid the harsh reality of bankruptcy that has befallen big names like Mike Tyson before.
Celebrities’ Effect on Cryptocurrency
According to market analyst Nouriel Roubini, Billionaire Elon Musk has somehow used his influence for cryptocurrency market manipulation. Whether the statement holds some truth in it or is completely off, celebrities have some weight when it comes to predicting crypto price trends, buying and selling digital assets.
Rapper Snoop Dogg has publicly given support to the meme-born cryptocurrency $DOGE, seconded by the alleged ‘market manipulator’ Elon Musk.
The movements by celebrities in the crypto market have drawn many other stars, including Soulja Boy, who went as far as sharing several of his cryptocurrency addresses on Twitter. Soulja Boy made public his love for Bitcoin and hassharedthe cryptocurrencies that are present in his portfolio.
Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, sees the Ethereum network scaling by a 100 factor and predicts the release of Optimism’s layer-two solution in the next few weeks.
Buterin noted that Eth2 development projects concentrate on developing the chain melting with Ethereum onthe Tim Ferriss podcastand are adamant that layer-two solutions will sustain the network before the sharding establishment. Sharding helps with the network’s capacity to process transactions and store data.
Eth2.0 Developments
In October, aTwitter threadrevealed that the Eth2 roadmap was getting an update, and the scaling improvements would arrive sooner than previously anticipated. They would introduce the concept of rollups and combine it with sharding to create a synergistic effect to turbo-charge the Ethereum network capacity.
In the podcast, Vitalik shed light on rollups. He said that rollups are coming very soon, and they are fully confident that by the time they need any more scaling of that, sharding will have already been ready for a long time by then.
Rollups are secondary solutions to process and store transaction information on a specified side-chain before bundling transaction batches into the mainnet in Ethereum. The solutions aim to alleviate the scale-up of Ethereum, which resulted in fierce bandwidth competition on the Ethereum mainnet in high fees.
Whereas Eth2 uses sharding to ensure scalability when fully rolled out, Buterin claims that rollups are enoughto increasethe transactional performance of Ethereum by 100 times.
He added that you still have the blockchain’s ability to go up to somewhere between 1,000 and 4,000 transactions a second, depending on how complex these transactions are.
Optimism Rollups Will Launch Soon
Buterin continued to predict that Optimism is to launch itsfullyEVM-compatible Virtual Machine in a month. He also underlines Arbitrum’s significant achievements in its EMV-compatible rollouts.
Optimistic rollups rely on fraud evidence to avoid invalid state transfers. Some DeFi industry leaders will welcome them, and analysts speculate that the future Uniswap V3 update will use this. One of the first projects to use the technology will be Aave andSynthetix.
Ethereum CEO added that there are simpler rollups that can only process basic transactions exchanged between assets such as Loopring and zkSync. These rollups have been stable for approximately a year now — even rollouts are not theory. For nearly one year, they were a functional part of Ethereum’s scalability for a few users.
Last week, Buterin made the draft system to direct smart contract protocols across various layer-two scaling solutions. As the Ethereum network is bringing staking abilities to the crypto space, the blockchainDeFiworld has been getting flooded with investors. As the community is commonly seeking each of these features, the hype around Ethereum becomes even more apparent.
Tech giant Amazon just announced the general availability of Ethereum on its managed blockchain.
According to Amazon Web Services, or AWS, users now have the ability to “provision Ethereum nodes” as well as connect to the blockchain’s mainnet as well as the Ropsten and Rinkeby testnets through the Amazon Managed Blockchain. The program claims to offer secure access to the network with “standard open-source Ethereum APIs” and syncs to the Ethereum blockchain.
“Amazon Managed Blockchain monitors node health, replaces unhealthy nodes, and automates Ethereum software upgrades, improving the availability of customers’ Ethereum infrastructure,” said the firm. “In addition to DeFi applications, customers building analytical products such as smart contract monitoring tools and fraud detection software can also benefit from this scalable, highly available, and fully managed Ethereum service.”
AWS first launched its Amazon Managed Blockchain in April 2019, saying at the time customers would be able to set up blockchain networks within their organizations, and use the Ethereum and Hyperledger open source frameworks. The service claimed it could eliminate the need “to provision hardware, install software, create and manage certificates for access control, and configure network settings.”
The move comes exactly one month following Jeff Bezos announcing he would be stepping down as Amazon CEO in the third quarter of 2021. He will be replaced by Andy Jassy, who is currently the CEO of Amazon Web Services and oversaw the company’s crypto product offerings.
The innovation of Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the world of blockchain promises to introduce a new means for authenticating ownership of digital artifacts.
Understanding NFTs
Non-fungibility refers to these tokens’ uniqueness and indivisibility, which means that NFTs can’t be exchanged for other tokens as they hold special features and valuation.
These unique tokens can act as the ultimate proof of ownership, ensuring that artists are reimbursed for their efforts and collectors can purchase and trade the tokens with ease.
While sharing his thoughts on NFTs, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee took issue with the non-finite nature of NFTs. He noted in aseries of tweetsthat it takes zero cost to create an unlimited number of these tokens.
The problem with NFTs is that they are Non-Finite Tokens. There is zero cost to create unlimited number of tokens.
Sure, Justin Roiland’s NFT is unique and awesome. But what’s stopping Matt Groening or Mike Judge or thousands of other artists from creating millions of new NFTs? https://t.co/anlEmfhmPW
— Charlie Lee [LTC⚡] (@SatoshiLite) February 15, 2021
“Because of the near-zero cost to create another NFT, the market will eventually be flooded with NFTs from artists trying to cash in on this craze. Supply will overwhelm demand, and the prices will eventually crash,” the crypto enthusiast explained.
Lee added that he had created a unique Chikun NFT, which cost him nothing except the gas fee on Ethereum. He argued that should the demand for hisChikun NFTshoot up, other artists could get in on the action by creating identical Powered Chikun tokens, resulting in diminishing value.
NFTs are a Hot Topic
Charlie Lee’s views on the artificial scarcity of NFTs come just days after the subject dominated talks at the just concludedETH Denver virtual conference.
Over the past year, numerous NFT-backed games saw significant advancements in player bases and governance, propelling the technology into the limelight in the crypto space.
The weekly volume of the non-fungible token’s market now stands at about $8.2M as the tech continues to garner adoption in gaming and collectibles. Even celebrities likeRick and Mortycreator Justin Roiland are now turning to NFTs to distribute art and interact with fans virtually during the Covid-19 induced lockdowns.
As a result, NFTs are starting to see some serious adoption, with recent Dune Analytics data showing that traffic on popular NFT marketplace Opensea is beginning tocurve parabolic.
Speaking during the ETH conference, Alex Salnikov of Rarible noted that collectibles and gaming aren’t the only fields where NFTs play an increasingly significant role. He argued that smart contracts’ technical advancements are leading a boom in DeFi and creating more use cases for NFTs.
Opinion Is Divided on NFTs
While NFT criticscontendthat these tokens have non-finite attributes, many proponents argue that they are scarce and authenticable on the blockchain.
Some detractors also cite concerns over the inability of NFTs to stimulate real-world volume, adding that NFTs such as digital paintings can only be purchased and held instead of being traded.
On the other hand, NFT advocates argue that these tokens hold great promise in expanding the digital resource economy and reshapingthe future of collectibles.
NFTs may well represent the blockchain’s next frontier; the new landscape’s eventual maturation will undoubtedly result in exploding real-world volumes and thriving markets as new use cases emerge.
Reddit is expanding its role in the Ethereum ecosystem to develop blockchain tools.
Reddit Increasing Commitment to Blockchain
On Wednesday, the social media platform announced that it is expanding its collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation to provide resources for developing scaling tools. Ina statement postedon r/ethereum, a Reddit employee said that the move increases its commitment to technology and reflects a long-held spirit of decentralization.
As Reddit continues to grow with more than 50 million daily users and hundreds of thousands of communities, the platform has long maintained a spirit of decentralization that allows users to create, manage and grow their communities. Through this partnership, Reddit will increase its commitment to the smart contract platform, accelerate the scale and resources of the Ethereum ecosystem, and bring millions of Redditors closer to the value and independence of blockchain technology.
The Reddit statement outlined that in this new phase of their partnership, immediate efforts will be focused on getting Ethereum into Reddit production. The partnership could lead to Reddit working onLayer 2 scalingtools or moving the project from prototyping to manufacturing.
Reddit’s development resources, including the development team, will be involved in this work. Ultimately, the idea is that a project like Reddit’s Community Points could potentially support millions of users on the site (Reddit had more than 50 million users a day at the time of printing, according to an announcement made Wednesday).
Adding, they stated that their blockchain efforts are being led by the Reddit crypto team. The company currently has back-end engineering jobs.
Community Points
Reddit launched Community Points last year and released them for r/Cryptocurrency and r/fortNiteBR (communities around the discussion about cryptocurrency and Fortnite gaming).
In short, the idea is that users can reward each other for making “quality posts,” and users can use those points for badges or other special functions. These points are stored on Rinkeby’s Ethereumtest network as ERC-20 tokens. It means that, unlike Reddit’s internal karma system, the company cannot control these points.
The company has not provided volume data on how many points have been awarded or redeemed to date. Still, the CryptoCurrency andFortNiteBRsubreddits had more than 1 million users at the time of writing.
Reddit does not appear to have plans to expand the system to other communities or move from Rinkeby to the Ethereum core network. The scaling technology developed as part of Reddit and Ethereum will be open-source and publicly available to everyone.
