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This Week in Web3—Will MERGE and Soulbound Tokens change Ethereum?, Work for Polygon & more!

GM, people of web3 ✨

If you're here from The Product House, say holaaaa 👋

Kabl3 is back with This Week In Web3, now powered by The Product House! 🚀

Every week, we present web3 updates that truly matter including the news that affected everyone, a thought piece that makes you wonder, job opportunities in web3, interesting reads for curious souls and more. We're only getting bigger and better so we'll keep things simple and fun, we promise.

So, get your morning coffee (or tea, we love it all) ☕️ and let's see what we have this week in web3:

  • The Future of Ethereum

  • Weekly Web3 Wrap

  • Is Merge All-Holy?

  • Work in Web3

  • Wealth for Web3

  • Interesting Reads of the Week

Estimated reading time: 4.5 minutes

This week in crypto 📈

Don’t let the bear market crush your spirits 😤 Join us in understanding how it affects Web3 in TPH's upcoming Twitter Space on Thursday, May 26 at 8 PM IST.

Set your reminder here 👇

The Product House🚀’s space · Where live audio conversations happen

Weekly web3 wrap 🗞

It seems like innovation is truly limitless at the Ethereum HQ! Last week, Vitalik Buterin co-published a 37-page paper predicting Ethereum's future, and Soulbound tokens are at its centre. Let's understand what they are and how they'll work.

What are Soulbound Tokens (SBTs)?

Soulbound tokens, or SBTs, are non-transferrable NFTs. Once you receive one, it forever resides in your Soul wallet. The only way to get rid of it is if the issuer burns it.

Use Cases

  • University Degrees: We've already had some educational institutions issue NFT Degrees and Diploma Certificates. But NFT degrees could still be easily sold or transferred. Enter SBTs! SBT degrees can ensure non-transferability and indicate that the holder is the original and true recipient.

  • Job Recruitment: Let's say you're looking to hire people for your DeFi company who have attended a specific DeFi Event. Now, if the event handed out SBTs to all attendees, you'd have a sure-shot confirmation of attendance rather. Saves your time and gets you the best fit for the job!

  • Souldrop: Sounds concerning 👀 but is quite interesting! Souldrops are airdrops based on computations over SBTs and other tokens within a Soul. Let's say a community-driven DAO wants to convene developers within a particular layer 1 protocol; it could souldrop to developers who hold 3 out of the last 5 conference attendance SBTs or other POAPs.

Co-author Glen predicts that SBTs will be available for early uses by the end of 2022. Vitalik and the team are calling the future of the world a "decentralized society", which doesn't sound dystopian at all considering the increasing importance of on-chain credentials. And all this could be made possible with SBTs!

More Web3 news you should know about 👇

🎣 Seth Green lost four valuable NFTs to a phishing attack AND he's working hard to get them back, including reaching out to the user who bought his stolen ape on Twitter!

🪙 DEI days are over? Another stablecoin failure: Deus Finance's stablecoin DEI lost its dollar peg & dipped to $0.50 this Monday. Deus is working hard to restore the peg, according to a tweet.

⛓ Rick and Morty creator is set to make a blockchain animated series: Dan Harmon will be working on 'Krapopolis,' an animated comedy set in mythic Ancient Greece. We're so looking forward to it!

📱 Aave's decentralized social graph is here! Aave launched Lens Protocol—designed to power NFT-powered social media platforms that can rival centralized giants like Twitter!

👀 Ethereum Merge is getting closer! Ethereum's move to proof of stake could be expected in August IF everything goes to plan. Not getting our hopes up BUT keeping our fingers crossed for sure!

Is the MERGE highlighting another problem?

Ethereum's Ropsten public testnet will undergo a "Merge", move from proof-of-work to "greener" proof-of-stake, next month ahead of a rollout on the main network.

After the shift, transactions on the Ethereum blockchain would be processed and validated by stakers instead of miners.

So, what's the problem?

In order to run a validator and earn staking rewards, participants must stake 32 ETH, which is worth roughly $65,800 at current prices.

Lido, Coinbase, Kraken and Binance are the four largest validator node operators on Ethereum's PoS Beacon Chain, and they have amassed a 54% share of all ETH staking activity, according to Nansen.

Lido’s dominance has raised centralization worries in relation to Ethereum’s long-term health and security.

The lead researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, Danny Ryan, highlighted the issue with Lido’s concentration.

By controlling a significant chunk of staked ether and assuming more than 90% of the liquid staking market, Lido’s centralization issue increases the risk of undesirable events such as validator slashing, governance attacks and smart contract exploits.

Also, in the lead-up to Ethereum’s decision to switch to PoS, there were concerns that CEXs would take over the lion’s share of staking pools. Lido was in itself created as an alternative to these centralized juggernauts.

This is a very important discussion to have in the future as Ethereum transitions to PoS. Do you think Lido’s concentration is a problem or not? After all, the stake is with many node operators.

Work in Web3 👩‍💻

🛠 Opportunities at Polygon

✍️ Write at DappRadar

📈 Build and grow Tegro's community

Wealth for Web3 💰

🌿 C Negative, a web3 climate initiative by Spacekayak, received a $5k grant from ETHIndia by Devfolio to continue building a platform that makes it more accessible for people to take Climate Action.

📱 Fanztar, a Web3 creator monetisation platform, raised Rs 5 crore in funding led by India Quotient.

💵 QuestBook raised $8.3 million in its Series A funding as it looks to scale its efforts to help web3 developers secure funds.

psst..guess which one we're most excited about? 👀

Interesting reads from this week 🤓

After all the hype about the metaverse, it was good to talk to someone who’s actually built one.

A decentralized exchange to trade ERC-20 token and make liquidity more accessible to the users.

Pick your NFT animals wisely, folks. Do Your Own Research!

That’s a wrap for This Week in Web3, but don’t stop here. Web3 has an endless learning curve, and you’ll explore more as you go about the technology, exciting career opportunities and yourself!

🚀 Check out The Product house to start your Web3 journey with a series of live learning masterclasses & workshops by seasoned web3 builders!

💻 And If you’re an early-stage Web3 builder or would like to venture out to the Web3 ecosystem, take your first step with our creative-capital studio Spacekayak and let’s walk together on your Web3 journey!

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