A provocative tweet by Ethereum core developer Afri Schoedon exposed the competitive atmosphere in the crypto space, ultimately leading to accusations of conflicts of interest and his eventual departure from Ethereum entirely. Meanwhile, Bitcoin world was loving on Lightning’s capabilities with the new Tippin app. But a previous Bitcoin giant, Bitmain, appears to be taking a fall. And new theories on Quadriga keep coming.
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This Week’s Crypto News…
How Ethereum Lost a Core Developer
“Polkadot delivers what Serenity ought to be.’ Change my mind,” tweeted Ethereum core developer Afri Schoedon last week. In yet another example of how tribal these crypto communities can be, the poorly framed tweet and the ensuing vitriol he endured resulted in his decision to exit the Ethereum project entirely. Lost in the scuffle around Afri is the fact that a lot of people are wondering just what kind of threat Polkadot could pose to Ethereum as well as expressing concern about the long road to Ethereum 2.0.
$500 Million — Poof
Not too long ago, Bitmain seemed invincible. But the downturn in the crypto markets has hurt the mining equipment manufacturer, with its latest filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in its quest to go public, indicating a $500 million loss in the third quarter.
Zapping Satoshis
Everyone was excited about Tippin.me, a Lightning-based browser extension that enables Bitcoin tips on tweets. At least one well-known previous attempt at micropayments, ChangeTip, didn’t achieve its vision, but at least this week everyone was zapping satoshis around.
DeFi Goes Meta
If you listened to the recent episodes of Unchained with Rune Christensen of MakerDAO, you may have heard him mention that 2% of all ETH is locked up in Maker. Dan Elitzer of IDEO CoLab blows your mind with some ways in which people who created CDPs could use that money that was locked up.
Systemic Risk Comes to DeFi?
Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson, previous podcasts guests, now have their own podcast, What Grinds My Gears. This week’s episode, which looks at credit markets historically, identified some of the ways that developments in the decentralized finance movement could lead to systemic risk.Coinbase’s Theory on Quadriga
Brian Armstrong published a tweetstorm with the company’s best guess at what happened with Quadriga — mismanagement, with the CEO’s death providing a handy cover for closing down the company.
Facebook ID on a Blockchain?
The idea of a Facebook ID on a blockchain might seem scary, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to understand it would need to be structured differently than it is now and be “fully distributed.” As this Verge article puts it, “The move would mean Facebook couldn’t cut off access to the third-party apps, which would be a boon for app developers. But, at the same time, Zuckerberg admits that making Facebook access decentralized would also mean that in the event of a massive data breach like Cambridge Analytica, third-party apps that violated privacy could still run freely.”
