Web3 Grapevine

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Coinbase Layer 2 on Optimism Going Live Soon Amindst Meme Token Frenzy

Coinbase, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, launched its own layer 2 blockchain in February 2023 - called Base. Base is built using Optimism , a popular layer 2 Ethereum scaling solution. Using Optimism allows Coinbase to offer lower gas fees and faster transaction speeds than Ethereum. At the time of writing, over $60 million ETH has been bridged to Base. This might sound good, but it comes with a big warning sign. There have already been a handful of rug pulls on this platform. The major one seems to be BALD token, which skyrocketed over 4M% within two days of launching. Alas, the token started to plummet as the BALD team address (0xccFa0530B9d52f970d1A2dAEa670ce58E4176389) removed most of the liquidity that was in LeetSwap - the exchange where you can purchase BALD tokens. Overall, Base is a promising layer 2 solution that has the potential to make Ethereum more scalable, efficient and user-friendly. However, people ought to tread carefully as there seems

Elon Musk, Twitter Super App 'X' and Web3

As Twitter’s logo is set for a rebrand tomorrow, information about Elon Musk’s plan for Twitter is resurfacing - or should we say ‘X .’ This has a few implications, the main one being the adoption of Web3. We know Twitter has about half a billion users as of 2023. Elon Musk’s alleged plans to offer crypto trading services potentially lower the bar for Twitter users to enter Web3. It’s important to note that about half a billion people are currently in the Web3 space - it’s unclear how much overlap exists between Twitter users and crypto users at the time of writing. We’ve already seen the successful adoption of super apps by the likes of WeChat (as one example). A recent announcement from Hong Kong showed Visa and Mastercard are now available as forms of payment for international travelers using WeChat in China. It’s not all fun and games for Super Apps, though. Singapore-based Grab had to let thousands of people go through a significant drop in share price. So where does th

What Do We Know About Solana?

I will keep these broad strokes because I'll have to dive much more deeply into future posts and different aspects that will be touched on here. Solana is its own blockchain, officially launched around the infamous COVID crash in March 2020. This was considered a black swan event in the market where everything tanked in price. It took Solana about 3 years to go live after introducing the idea. In the interest of keeping this explanation high level, we'll talk about the famous tradeoff in cryptocurrency between security and efficiency. On one side of the spectrum, we have Bitcoin, considered the most secure network, but it's insanely slow. Bitcoin uses a "Proof-of-Work," where computing power dictates the following blocks created on the ledger. This uses physical hardware computers worldwide to create Bitcoin, which is starting to get an avalanche of negative press for its energy consumption and adverse environmental effects. More on another day. Many of the

Why is the Bitcoin Price Up to Start 2023?

The truth to this question is that nobody really knows. If anyone tells you otherwise, run! But the cool thing about crypto is there's a lot of data readily available for ordinary people like us to review at our leisure. One of the main appeals of crypto, in general, is the transparent nature of the industry. Side note: it makes it much harder to commit crimes using crypto because every transaction has a permanent, immutable paper trail . More on this later. In any case, the Bitcoin price is now at the same level it was before the market was tanked by Sam Bankman Fried and FTX. Nothing like fraudulent management of user funds to make people run for the hills. There are a few leading theories about why the Bitcoin price is up today. 1. The classic Stock to Flow model created by PlanB This theory basically banks on the mathematics of how Bitcoin is created. In short, there is a fixed supply of Bitcoin (21 million), and the amount of Bitcoin that's distributed to the public is

Welcome to Web3, Crypto and Bitcoin News Updates and Background

There are endless question marks around the crypto and web3 industry. Is it just a fad? Are things going to recover? Did FTX kill the whole industry? The truth is that any one question deserves more of a thoughtful answer, which is what I am to do with this site. I want to dive into the topics that interest people the most so they can have some clarity about the burgeoning blockchain industry. If you're brand new to the industry or consider yourself an expert, I'd like to address topics in a digestible way to all ends of the spectrum. Bitcoin came into my life in 2013 (granted, I bought it in 2020), and I've worked full-time in crypto for the last three years. We're now at a time when people are constantly coming to me with important questions about the industry, and the biggest goal is to create a place where they can gather all the information they need in one place. Some topics covered here include Bitcoin, Ethereum, web3, mining, DAOs, metaverse, NFTs, and altcoi