Ethereum network is nearing the merger phase of its crucial transition from proof-of-work (PoW) mining consensus to proof-of-stake (PoS). Ethereum (ETH) devs offered a perpetual merger date during a conference call on Thursday. The conference call saw core Ethereum developer Tim Beiko, who runs core protocol meetings, propose September 19 as the tentative target date for the merger. The proposed target date didn’t face any objection from the core developers. Later, Ethereum developer superphiz.eth tweeted about the roadmap to the merger and also cleared that the proposed target date should be seen as a roadmap rather than a hard deadline. …

It’s not a great day to be in crypto. Perhaps you’ve seen an article (or 20) about this. Perhaps you’ve been on Twitter, where our detractors are cackling gleefully over every headline, each one more harbinger-of-doom-esque than the next. To be fair, things are going badly. Crashed, collapsed, erased, plunged, obliterated and imploded are the operative verbs in most coverage, and they’re not being used incorrectly or in an exaggerated manner. There’s no putting a positive spin on a week where $400 billion in value just evaporated. Even for the most furiously determined buy-the-dippers and diamond-handed believers who feed off …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has criticized the controversial Bitcoin (BTC) stock-to-flow (S2F) model, popularized by a pseudonymous Dutch institutional investor known as PlanB. The BTC stock-to-flow model gained a lot of attention during the bull run as it got several price predictions right, however, the model deviated on a number of occasions during the bull market as well. Buterin joined the growing list of critics of the model that aims to predict the price of BTC: Stock-to-flow is really not looking good now. I know it's impolite to gloat and all that, but I think financial models that give people …

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of both Ethereum & Bitcoin Magazine, took to Twitter to share his thoughts on non-financial use cases for blockchain technology. In a paper titled “Where to use a blockchain in non-financial applications?” Buterin expressed a growing interest in using blockchain technology outside of the financial industry. He noted that while other industries have been slow to adopt the technology, he can “see the value of blockchains in many situations.” Where to use a blockchain in non-financial applications?https://t.co/T6jlAzCvew Big thanks to @pujaohlhaver @shreyjaineth for review! You should also check what they have to say; they have some unique …

There is no shortage of visionary scenarios about how Web3 might unfold, but one of the latest, “Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul” — a paper published in mid-May by E. Glen Weyl, Puja Ohlhaver and Vitalik Buterin — is close to becoming one of the top 50 most downloaded papers on the SSRN scholarly research platform. The attention, one might suspect, has much to do with the participation of Buterin, blockchain’s wunderkind and the legendary co-founder of the Ethereum network. But it could also be a function of the paper’s ambition and scope, which includes asking questions like: What sort …

As the state of New York pushes forward a bill that will ban proof-of-work (PoW) mining once approved, members of the crypto community express their disagreement through social media. In a Twitter thread, Jake Chervinsky, the head of policy at Blockchain Association, explained that the move will not “reduce carbon emissions” at all. According to Chervinsky, a mining ban will only push miners away from New York to build in other areas where the state has no influence over them. Chervinsky hopes that New York Governor Kathy Hochul will veto the bill “for the sake of New York." The lawyer …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shown support for Optimism’s new governance structure, noting that proposals such as using the OP token for gas fees shows “explicit representation of non-token-holder interests.” The Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution deployed the first round of its long-awaited OP token airdrop on Wednesday as part of its new governance project the “Optimism Collective.” Optimism’s new governance structure involves two parties dubbed the “Token House” and “Citizens’ House.” The former is composed of OP governance token holders and the latter consists of “soul-bound” non-transferrable citizenship nonfungible token (NFT) owners. While it is unclear if Buterin is fully …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared two thought experiments on how to evaluate whether an algorithmic (algo) stablecoin is sustainable. Buterin’s comments were sparked by the multi-billion dollar losses caused by the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and its algo stablecoin TerraUSD (UST). In a Wednesday blog post, Buterin noted that the increased amount of scrutiny placed on crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) since the Terra crash is “highly welcome,” but he warned against writing off all algo-stablecoins entirely. “What we need is not stablecoin boosterism or stablecoin doomerism, but rather a return to principles-based thinking,” he said: “While there …

Ahead of the Merge tentatively penciled in for August, Ethereum’s Beacon Chain experienced a seven-block reorganization, or reorg, on Wednesday. According to data from Beacon Scan, on Wednesday, seven blocks from number 3,887,075 to 3,887,081 were knocked out of the Beacon Chain between 08:55:23 to 08:56:35 am UTC. The term reorg refers to an event in which a block that was part of the canonical chain, such as the Beacon Chain, gets knocked off the chain due to a competing block beating it out. It can be the result of a malicious attack from a miner with high resources or …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin thinks that the beleaguered Terra project should prioritize small hodlers as part of any proposed reimbursement plan. As widely reported, the Terra eco-system suffered a death spiral around May 9 that resulted in LUNA tanking 100% and the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin losing its United States dollar peg, priced at $0.16 at time of writing. With LUNA and UST investors reeling from substantial losses, the community is now looking at ways to reestablish the ecosystem and potentially offer relief to the many people who got burned financially. One such community proposal — assuming the UST dollar peg …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has donated $4 million worth of USD Coin (USDC) to the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to support the development of a pandemic detection tool. The capital, which equates to roughly 5.3 million Australian dollars, is part of Buterin’s self-described “moonshot anti-COVID effort” dubbed Balvi Filantropic Fund in partnership with the Shiba Inu (SHIB) memecoin project and Crypto Relief. The funds will further support the development of the Shiba Inu Open-Source Intelligence- (OISNT)-based EPIWATCH tool, which utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and open-source data to create early pandemic warning signs. Created by Kirby Institute professor and …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes that layer-2 transaction fees need to be under $0.05 to be “truly acceptable.” Buterin made the latest comments in response to a Twitter post from the “Bankless” podcast host Ryan Sean Adams, who shared a screenshot of the average transaction fees for eight eight Ethereum layer-2 platforms. The data is from L2fees.info, a website that compares the cost of Ethereum’s layer-1 network in comparison to layer-2s built on top of it. The only layer-2 to meet Buterin’s desired transaction fee under $0.05 is the Metis Network at $0.02, however, a token swap on the platform …