Ethereum has transitioned from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake following a successful Merge
Thanks to the PoS transition, the Ethereum network will reduce its carbon footprint by 99.95%
The Merge sets the stage for future Ethereum upgrades that will bring massive scalability improvements and enable the network to facilitate up to 100,000 TPS
Proof-of-Work is no more as Ethereum transitions to 99.95% more efficient Proof-of-Stake
It finally happened – earlier today, at 06:42:42 UTC, to be exact, the Ethereum mainnet successfully merged with the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Beacon Chain, marking arguably the biggest upgrade in crypto history. Starting today and going forward, Ethereum will use the PoS algorithm to reach a consensus about the state of the decentralized ledger.
Celebrating the successful Merge, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin congratulated “everyone who helped make the Merge happen” and added that he feels “very proud today”.
And we finalized!
Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today.
While the Merge itself won’t impact how users interact with Ethereum, or bring any notable scalability upgrades, the update sets the stage for post-Merge upgrades, which will bring considerable improvements to how transactions are handled, ultimately resulting in a blockchain that can process up to 100,000 transactions per second (TPS).
One of the most notable improvements of the post-Merge Ethereum is the fact that the network won’t have to rely anymore on Proof-of-Work (PoW) miners and will instead depend on network validators for security and new block production. Thanks to the massive shift in how the network is being run, Ethereum will spend 99.95% less energy while sacrificing no functionality, according to the Ethereum Foundation.
The finalization of the Merge marks the first step on a five-phase long roadmap that will culminate with the Splurge and the full launch of Ethereum 2.0.
The next step on the Ethereum roadmap is the Surge, an upgrade that will bring sharding and introduce notable scalability improvements. Ethereum devs estimate the Surge will roll out in 2023-2024.
For more information about the upcoming Ethereum upgrades, check the detailed roadmap below.
Ethereum 2.0 roadmap. Image source: Ethereum Foundation
As the blockchain space continues to experience tremendous growth, more opportunities for users to earn open up; move2earn [M2E] is the latest trend. The primary goal of this blockchain-based movement is to promote active, healthier lifestyles. M2E allows users to earn rewards for engaging in real-life activities.
Like most emerging trends, M2E faces a few problems—a lack of accurate user activity tracking devices and the absence of a genuinely sustainable reward system. While most of the projects claim to offer rewards to users each time they undertake activities such as walking, running, swimming, etc., Motearn takes things up a notch by seeking to revolutionize the budding market.
The Motearn Move2Earn Project
Motearn is a next-generation M2E project from Embry Tech—a VC-backed, wearable technology start-up focused on encouraging people to lead active and healthier lifestyles. Motearn is a product of extensive research in the fitness and health industry.
The team understands the immense benefits of motivation and daily reminders, especially in the fitness and wellness industry. To encourage more people to lead healthier, more active lifestyles, Motearn instantly rewards you for engaging in various real-life activities. While other M2E projects provide similar services, Motearn, as a revolutionary project, prioritizes your health by only rewarding you when you perform these physical actions.
Solving Existing M2E Problems
Adequately and accurately tracking users’ daily activities—a core aspect of the M2E space—has become an arduous task for existing projects. This drawback diminishes the reliability level of the emerging space, making it a tad bit challenging to attract top stakeholders. Motearn addresses this sticking point.
The next-gen project introduces a smart user tracking device based on a super advanced Proof-of-Walk technology from Embry Tech. The integration of this essential tracking system provides High precision data and restores reliability to the M2E market.
It doesn’t end there; Motearn, unlike other M2E projects, takes things further by introducing a sustainable reward economy. Incentivizing real-life movements is the core fabric of M2E, and Motearn understands and has perfectly placed a well-thought-out reward generation scheme.
Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent annually treating several health conditions resulting from unhealthy, sedentary, or inactive lifestyles. With most of these monies coming from the pockets of governments, NGOs, employers, and insurance companies, Motearn will attract these stakeholders or parties to pay users’ rewards as an early-stage, bold approach to dwindle future health challenges.
As the number of users grows, most M2E projects are bound to crash, partly due to an unsustainable incentivization economy, but not Motearn. By providing reliable tracking data, the next-gen platform hopes to attract more parties, meaning more rewards for you.
“Move Matters the Most”
Motearn is not just another M2E platform where you earn rewards for engaging in in-game activities; it aims to promote a wellness ecosystem based on privacy, reliability, and transparency. On Motearn, it is impossible to buy or earn $EMETs [Embry Move2Earn Tokens] without performing any real-life activity. You earn tokens for maintaining a non-sedentary lifestyle, and you lose some of your $EMETs each time you fail to lead an active life.
Motearn has created a collection of unique IRL NFTs—Connected Tangible NFTs [ctNFTs]. Holders of this shoe ctNFTs can connect any smart wearable apparel to their NFTs, unlocking additional earnings and more utility.
Motearn integrates a non-GPS technology and an unfakeable system to guarantee a privacy-focused platform. Each user’s data is converted to $EMETs/$MOT and will subsequently allow the user to trade without compromising privacy.
Per a recent press release, Motearn will be minting its collection of 3210 IRL/NFT shoes in six batches at 2 week intervals, with the first batch starting on 15th SEP 9:00 PM UTC with a supply of 500 NFTs. ctNFT holders will receive exclusive access to the mobile application. The CEO, Sargis Karapetyan, describes the launch as an opportunity to empower people to lead healthier and more actively.
“We are excited to launch our private beta. This is an opportunity to empower people to lead healthier, happier, and self-confident lives. Motearn is meant to deliver on that promise in the wellness space, even in the beta phase, as we prioritize earnings rooted in moving, with more reliable data from connected devices, all while protecting the privacy of our users’ data.” the CEO says.
The crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) world continue to grow, consistently reaching billions of dollars in daily trading volume. The number of participants and investors in this relatively new financial industry continues to increase day by day. It is clear that the next major mainstream revolution in finance will be DeFi.
Rebuswill act as a vehicle to take the DeFi evolution to the next stage, where institional actors are bound to get into the game. Asset managers, banks, insurers, and other traditional finance participants will be able to make informed and regular investments in crypto products through the Rebus Platform.
For context, 58% of the US population invests in TradFi investment instruments. This rate is only 13% when it comes to crypto investment. Moreover, we can assume that a large share of crypto investors are already on TradFi. The fact that the share of DeFi participants is growing exponentially but is still quite low compared to TradFi indicates that global demand for crypto could increase by 5- to 40-fold in the upcoming years. That’s what the hyper-adoption cycle we’ve observed in other paradigm-shifting technologies, like the internet, smartphone, and social media, tells us.
More Adoption by Rebus Platform
The Rebus Platform brings the value and convenience needed for greater DeFi adoption. Rebus will not act as a store of value, smart contract platform, or meme token, but rather as a protocol that allows DeFi assets to be traded and used in a manner similar to conventional financial products. Rebus’s vision will continue to rise in value as complexity in the cryptocurrency industry decreases, and utility evolves.
The billions of dollars coming into DeFi by TradFi organizations and investors is the key to accelerating hyper-adoption. Rebus leverages proprietary blockchain technology to meet regulatory requirements without sacrificing essential liquidity. The $REBUS token is used as an intermediary between the vaults and DeFi protocols on the platform. Vaults allow clients to not have to deal with the complexities of crypto investments.
The Objectives of Rebus
Projects like the Rebus Investment Platform are developing valuable and exciting applications for large groups of investors to come to DeFi. Investors who are in the financial world but not yet involved in the crypto world are joining DeFi one after another. As DeFi investment opportunities evolve, a similar cycle could be experienced in DeFi with the hyper-adoption of the internet seen from the mid-to-late 1990s.
Rebus operates at an intersection of TradFi, CeFi, and DeFi. Image source: Rebus
$REBUS Token
$REBUS will be listed on centralized and decentralized exchanges ahead of the launch of the first financial products planned for the first quarter of CY2023. An airdrop event is also being organized on September 15, and a public coin distribution (PCD) via LBP on September 27-30.
$REBUS will be used as an intermediary service and governance token for customers to generate DeFi revenue streams through their existing Asset Management with familiar use cases. $REBUS is the safest and simplest way to invest in the success of the Cosmos Appchain.
Rebus Vault
Rebus Vault is where the platform will offer its financial products. Using Interchain Account and Cosmos IBC to interact with Cosmos blockchain applications, Rebus Vault offers many solutions to investment problems existing in the crypto world. Some of the things Vault can do include:
Execution of off-chain components by Rebus Investment and financial partners,
Bringing and using the liquidity of the entire ecosystem,
Taking advantage of the strong synergies of the Cosmos ecosystem,
Utilizing different application types to differentiate investments,
To be used as a smart contract and a native application running on the blockchain.
Rebus Vaults are automatically and periodically rebalanced. Passively rebalancing using range orders saves on transaction fees. The features offered by Rebus minimize impermanent loss.
Closing thoughts
A platform that is regulated, reliable, and provides statistically higher returns using concentrated liquidity is a boon for new participants in the DeFi world. Rebus will be released in just a few months as an app that can provide all the features needed to drive hyper-adoption and exponential global demand.
Canes Connection, an industry-leading organization dedicated to facilitating NIL opportunities for University of Miami (UM) Student Athletes, has announced that they will be integrating and utilizing the ReserveBlock RBX (reserveblock.io) blockchain protocol for NFTs. The ReserveBlock Foundation will provide a pool of RBX masternodes to the Canes Connection that will allow participating UM Student-Athletes to be part of the RBX Network, verify transactions, and earn randomized block rewards. The RBX Network will also enable Canes Connection and participating UM Student-Athletes to issue interactive NFTs to sponsors and brands, increasing connectivity and utility within the Canes Connection community.
For the first time ever in NIL, Canes Connection will deploy a randomized block reward system for the exclusive benefit of all student-athletes participating in the Canes Connection NIL program by distributing earned rewards on a monthly basis. The RBX masternode deployment allows the Connection to create fair and equitable potential earnings for every participating student athlete regardless of fame, notoriety or playing status.
Through the use of self-executing (SENs) RBX smart contracts, the Connection will also issue interactive and dynamic NFTs for sponsors and fans to connect, collect and engage in unique experiences directly with student-athletes, as well as initiate ambassadorships for brands and businesses at the local and national level.
“We are excited to partner with RBX on this unique and exciting project,” said Zach Burr, Co-CEO of Canes Connection. “Those student-athletes opting into the Canes Connection will be a part of a best-in-class NFT platform, and will be able to easily create their own NFTs for their fans and sponsors.”
Each UM student-athlete within the program will also have access to a personal RBX core wallet and web wallet that will enable them to add additional masternodes on the network using block rewards if they choose. With their personal RBX wallets, they can also create their very own NFTs without having to know or write code. Each participating student-athlete will be able to easily create NFTs and market them directly to fans and followers simply by sharing them on their very own social media accounts.
“We chose to partner with RBX because we believed their blockchain protocol will provide our student-athletes the most convenient and stress-free way to create and market their own NFTs, but more importantly, an incredible opportunity to earn passive block rewards via our pool of RBX masternodes,” said Brian Goldmeier, Co-CEO of Canes Connection.
The Canes Connection will also provide an “on-ramp” from its own website to a secondary marketplace, which will be powered by the RBX Network, for aftermarket NFT auctions as well as for special NFT drops. This first mover NIL program is expected to launch in October 2022 with additional details to follow in the coming weeks.
About the ReserveBlock RBX Network:
RBX is the first open-source decentralized NFT Centric Blockchain that enables true peer-to-peer operability for the minting and trading of NFTs with or without the need for a centralized authority. With an ecosystem that provides a full suite of on-chain tools, RBX reduces common frictions and burdens by providing an environment for anyone and everyone to participate with transparent trustless features all through a core wallet or web wallet by either validating on the network and/or writing a smart contract without the need-to-know code whatsoever. The RBX network is currently in mainnet beta.
Earlier this week, Tether Operations Limited (“Tether”), the company behind the largest stablecoin in the sector, announced that USDT is launching on the NEAR Network (NEAR). With the expansion to the NEAR ecosystem, the USD price-tracking stablecoin is now available on 14 different blockchain platforms.
Key takeaways:
NEAR is one of the 15 largest decentralized finance (DeFi) networks when accounting for the total value locked (TVL) in dApps running on the platform. Per the latest DeFi Llama’s TVL data, there was $299 million locked on NEAR as of September 13.
According to a Monday press release, the preponderance of decentralized applications (dApps) on the NEAR blockchain makes it a great option for USDT expansion.
“The NEAR ecosystem has witnessed historic growth this year and we believe Tether will be essential in helping it continue to thrive,” noted Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino.
TRON and Ethereum-based USDT account for the vast majority of Tether’s supply, with $33.1 billion and $32.3 billion, respectively. For context, the entire circulating supply of USDT stands at $67.9 billion.
The price of NEAR, the NEAR network’s native cryptocurrency, hit a monthly high of $5.25 on Monday, following the news of Tether integration.
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that core inflation in the US recorded an 8.3% yearly increase in August
The increase came as a surprise, as most experts forecasted a modest drop in inflation levels in August
Both crypto and traditional assets plunged after the report was released
The CPI for August was 8.3%, beating experts’ expectations of 8.1%
On Monday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a new report on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). After a month of stagnation in July, the CPI increased by 0.1% in August, raising concerns over the prospects of the U.S. Federal Reserve’sincreasingly restrictive monetary policy.
According to a Bloomberg report, all sectors – including food, medical care, and transportation – recorded a bigger price growth than it was forecasted. While the experts anticipated an 8.1% rate of annual CPI growth in August, the real figures showed an 8.3% growth.
On a positive note, energy prices decreased by 5% compared to July, primarily due to the falling gasoline and fuel oil prices.
It is widely expected that the Fed will announce another 75 basis point interest rate hike – a third one this year – to combat rising inflation. The Federal Open mark Committee (FOMC) noted as much in a report last month, saying that the Fed would continue raising interest rates as long as the inflation is curbed back to 2%.
It is worth noting that crypto assets, much like other expansionary assets like tech stocks, perform best in low-interest rate conditions featuring easy access to money and a more lax investment environment.
$1.6 trillion erased from the stock market, Bitcoin dropped to $20k
Poor core inflation data, along with fear of additional interest rate hikes, have contributed to a sudden drop in the value of crypto and most traditional assets on Monday. Virtually every major US stock was down on the day, leading to $1.6 trillion being wiped out from the market.
A similar story played out in the crypto sector, with Bitcoin losing roughly 10% and dropping from $22,500 to $20,500 following the release of new CPI data. In total, 95 out of the top 100 digital assets (excluding stablecoins) ended the day in the red zone.
With another 0.75% increase in the federal rate looming, the markets are likely to experience more volatility in the coming days. The next FOMC meeting is slated for September 20-21.
A lot of new projects appear every day. But have you ever come across such means of earning as Nodes?
Azimuth Finance is a project that provides several different tools for passive income, such as mining, farming and nodes.
Let’s try to figure it out with you.
Network node is an ordinary computer which a certain program is constantly running on.
Each node is connected to other nodes, which makes it possible to come to a consensus – a special mechanism by which information about “correctness” of transactions in the network is checked. In other words, so that the cryptocurrency involved in the transaction is spent only once. There are several types of nodes. But in this case, we are talking about only two of them: Full Node and Lite Node.
All Full Nodes make a dynamic validator set where nodes can be added or removed by a voting mechanism where majority (51%) of validator nodes vote to add/remove certain validators; this helps to remove malicious validators while new trusted validators can be added.
Lite Nodes are responsible to elect a set of Full Nodes to participate in each epoch and those elected set of validators take turns in proposing new blocks. Validated block requires a majority of (2⁄3) must approve the said block. Apart from the elected validator set, there are non-validators who do not participate in block creation but do participate in the block validation process.
The purpose of Lite Nodes is to elect Full Nodes as Validators for the Azimuth Finance chain to produce the block. Lite Nodes functioning as electors during an epoch earn a fee which is a portion of the Azimuth Finance block rewards proportional to their reputation (i.e. higher reputation Lite Nodes receive a higher portion of the fee). Reputation is based on the availability of nodes to participate in election and signing epochs for heart beat checks.
Offline nodes are warned which affect reputation score which leads to that particular node losing access to participate in the process.
What does Azimuth Finance offer?
500 Lite Nodes and 200 Full Nodes are available for purchase with different prices and different daily rewards. Lite node costs 2 BNB and Full node costs 8 BNB.
It is also important to note that only pre-launch participants are able to buy nodes. The team expects all available nodes to be sold by the end of the pre-launch.
For each person in order to count the income they are going to receive from the Node, the
Azimuth Finance team has posted an online calculator on its website. It is intuitive to use, so users should not have any further questions.
The Azimuth Finance team has passed KYC at Novos. As well as three smart contract audits at TechRate, SolidityFinance and SolidProof.
Pre-Launch has already started on the Azimuth Finance platform. You can find all the conditions on their website; links to all the communities of the project are here:
MicroStrategy is selling $500 million of its class A common stock at $0.001 per share
The price of MicroStrategy stock (MSTR) has seen considerable positive market movements after the announcement
The company controls 129,698 BTC, worth roughly $2.9 billion at current market rates
MicroStrategy has spent nearly $4 billion on BTC purchases to date
According to a September 9 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), MicroStrategy is likely gearing up to further bolster its Bitcoin portfolio. The company is offering shares of their class A common stock at $0.001 per share, with an aggregate price of $500 million.
In the filing, MicroStrategy listed primary risks associated with its high exposure to Bitcoin, including its vulnerability to crypto market volatility, uncertainty surrounding digital asset regulation, and liquidity concerns.
MicroStrategy is a publicly traded company under the ticker symbol MSTR on Nasdaq. Due to its outsized Bitcoin portfolio, MicroStrategy has been widely perceived as a sort of Wall Street-traded Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Going by the Bitcoin Treasuries data, MicroStrategy has spent $3.98 billion on a total of 129,698 Bitcoin over several major investments. With the current market rate of Bitcoin of approximately $22,500, the company is down almost $1 billion on its crypto investment to date. For context, the company’s market cap currently stands at $2.9 billion.
The $500 million stock sale announcement has apparently been positively received by the market – the price of MicroStrategy stock (MSTR) rallied by nearly 30% in the past couple of days, increasing from $204 on September 7 to $262 before the market close on September 12.
In related news, the former CEO of MicroStrategy and acting executive chairman, Michael Saylor, has been accused of evading $25 million in taxes by the District of Columbia’s attorney general. The AG is seeking $100 million in penalties and unpaid taxes from the tech billionaire.
Walken, a fast-growing blockchain gaming platform on Monday announced the roadmap for its platform coupled with new additional features.
The announcement signifies a major milestone in its ecosystem, thus bringing the game closer to actualizing its vision to facilitate a healthy lifestyle using games and crypto. Gamifying a healthy lifestyle and adding financial incentives as rewards for gamers are among Web3’s biggest innovations.
The newly released roadmap signifies Walken’s stride in ensuring significant overall growth. The roadmap includes a localization feature supporting seven new languages.
Walken also plans to reinvest 60 million of its token into the ecosystem to build it and thus increase its value. Other features include:
Ranking systems depicting player activity and achievements and a Wheel of Fortune to reward active players (on both Android and iOS)
The Walken Ambassador program will support local communities.
Dedicated referral program with associated bonuses
Through these features, the Walken community is set for rapid growth and even sustains its growth in the process. The strong presence of a community for the ecosystem signifies its alignment with the core values of Web3.
Walken shares in-game economy statistics
In addition to the roadmap, Walken has also disclosed in-game statistics, to assure the crypto and gaming community of its growth. The data includes that of its ecosystem and player base.
The data shows Walken’s estimation to get about 2 million users by Q4 2022, a growth from its current 1.11 million users. It has also seen its daily users spike beyond 20,000 in July and August 2022.
Russia is also shown as being the country with the biggest user base, while Ukraine, India, and Vietnam closely follow. The figure represents 19.6%, 10.4%, 7.34%, and 5.13% respectively.
Though iOS growth on the platform was beyond Android’s, the latter has since overtaken the latter in August 2022. While iOS now contributes about 1,000 new daily users, Android contributes more than 7,000 new users daily.
Alexei Kulevets, Walken CEO and co-founder, noted:
“One of the main challenges of any gamified web3 project is to make it both fun and sustainable, especially a free2play one. With Walken, we are proving the point that it’s possible. We are grateful to our amazing community and work hard to make it even better”.
Walken’s growth can therefore be attributed to its use of fun activities to build a healthy lifestyle.
