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Puma: between the metaverse and NFTs at the New York Fashion Week. Discover the initiatives of the German brand in the world of Web3!

The New York Fashion Week started on Friday the 9th of September 2022, and it is almost drawing to a close. Among the fashion collections that have just taken to the catwalks of the Big Apple, one stands out from the rest. We’re talking about the German brand Puma, that has been absent from the catwalks since 2017. They were ready to return in style through such a highly anticipated event. So, why was Puma’s event on Wednesday the 14th of September 2022 so eagerly awaited? It was the first fashion show to take place in both the real world and the metaverse!

The event called Futrograde was held both on the New York catwalks and in Puma’s Metaverse called Puma Black Station. The news doesn’t end there though! In August 2022, the famous German brand launched its NFT collection on the Ethereum blockchain called Puma Nitropass. Find out how to interact with the Puma Metaverse and their NFTs!

Futrograde, the parade in the Metaverse Puma Black Station!

On the occasion of one of the most eagerly awaited fashion events of the year, Puma has developed a true Web3 ecosystem in which the industry’s leading technologies interact. One of the objectives is certainly to cross geographical boundaries and enable everyone to experience the thrill of attending a Fashion Week event.

But let’s go in order, where did the Futrograde event take place? The event took place in Puma’s metaverse called Puma Black Station, at 2am on Wednesday the 14th of September (UK time). The Black Station platform is a 3D environment designed with the Unreal 5 graphics engine. According to the brand, all of Puma’s Web3 initiatives will be made available there. As of today, users can access two portals by moving around like in a video game: one is called NFERNO and one is called FASTROID. Once you access the portal, you can move to the centre of the virtual room where two 3D models of the sneakers that Puma is about to launch are positioned, illuminated by a particular play of light.

The 3D models in question depict two Puma sneakers that NFT Nitropass owners can physically obtain. How? By burning the digital artwork currently in their possession or by destroying it forever. Puma Nitropass NFTs, built on the Ethereum blockchain, are available on the OpenSea marketplace. The collection consists of 4000 units and the minimum price at which they can be purchased is 0.23 Ether, approximately 370€.

At the back of the room of the Metaverse Puma Black Station, there is also a portal called ‘Futrograde Entry’, which was the route to the Puma show during New York Fashion Week 2022.

Puma’s Web3 and NFT journey

The fact that Puma is a brand in tune with Web3 technologies is nothing new. The German brand approached the Web3 world (and in particular the NFT space), ahead of most competitors by signing partnerships with famous digital art collections. Puma’s Web3 adventure officially started on the 21st of February 2022 with the purchase of the ENS domain puma.eth. Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a protocol for registering domains on the Ethereum blockchain. Each ENS domain can be used as a web address, a wallet, an email or a social media account. Puma has for now chosen to use its ENS domain as the handle of its Twitter page.

Between February and June 2022, Puma launched a large series of partnerships with important NFT projects. In just a few days, it formed partnerships with four collections created on the Ethereum blockchain: CoolCats NFT, Lazy Lions, CatBlox and the Gutter Cat Gang. Each project covered different initiatives. For example, the collaboration with Lazy Lions, which took place in conjunction with NFT Week 2022 in New York, allowed Lazy Lions holders to get a Puma T-shirt with their NFT Lion printed on it. Is it a coincidence that all these NFTs depict felines?

The next step in Puma’s Web3 journey? In May 2022, the brand decided to jump in and develop its first NFT collection together with English football club Manchester City. The collection celebrates the 10th anniversary of the club’s first title in the Premier League (England’s top football league). The particular name of the collection called 93:20 refers to the time elapsed from kick-off to the decisive goal scored by Sergio Aguero during the last game of the 2011-2012 season.

The collection consists of NFTs depicting Aguero’s Puma football boot in a cartoonish, decomposed version, with a series of vignettes inside representing the city of Manchester and the Citizens team. There are only three NFTs in the collection and they differed from each other in terms of the colour of the shoe’s background and the experiences they offered to buyers. The crypto artworks created by digital artist Musketon were sold on the NFT marketplace called Makersplace at three quite different prices, precisely because they offered different benefits. The one with the blue background sold for $1,100, the one with the yellow background for about $2,000, and the one with the green background, which included four tickets to watch a match from the Etihad Stadium suite, for about $6200.

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An NFT platform dedicated to memorable moments in basketball now exists on the Flow blockchain. Find out what NBA Top Shot is and how it works!

What is NBA Top Shot? In essence, it is a platform for fans of the most famous basketball league! Created from a collaboration between the blockchain company Flow, the Dapper Labs team and the National Basketball Association, NBA Top Shot offers videos of the most memorable moments of basketball in the form of NFTs. NBA Top Shot NFTs can be collected and used as playing cards. So, how do the challenges work? Where can you buy NBA NFTs? What are the differences with Sorare? We explain all this and much more in this guide to NBA Top Shot!

What is NBA Top Shot? The origins of the project

The NBA Top Shot project was launched in 2019 to allow fans and supporters to exclusively collect highlights of American basketball. The idea for Top Shot came from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). The technical creation of the NFTs, on the other hand, was entrusted to Dapper Labs, a Web3 influencer. They registered the NFTs’ information and metadata on the Flow blockchain via smart contracts.

The reception of the project by fans was good right from the start, and NBA Top Shot continues to be very successful. This is partly due to the popularity and reliability of the NBA brand. Confidence in the project came from the positive values associated with the NBA, and many people bought an NFT from the Top Shot collection as their first one. A good portion of Web3 novices owe a lot to the NBA! The NBA Top Shot community has also expanded to include dozens of celebrities, including well-known faces from US basketball such as Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant. In 2021, the NFTs of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) league were also integrated.

Flow, the blockchain for NFTs

Flow is a Proof-of-Stake blockchain that aims to be the benchmark in the development of Web3 projects. Flow works to be highly scalable, fast and low cost. But its real strength is its user-friendliness for developers, who can create customised projects that are instantaneous and easy for users to use. Flow aims to support everything the Web3 world has to offer: NFTs, DAOs, play-to-earn games. Flow aims to engage the public, even those outside the crypto sector  by building the most innovative blockchain experiences. This vocation towards entertainment originates from a well-known incident in the NFT world, namely the congestion of the Ethereum network in 2017 due to the launch of the CryptoKitties collection. After this episode that demonstrated Ethereum’s weaknesses, the CryptoKitties team decided to found a blockchain suitable for hosting NFTs. Thus, the Dapper Labs startup was born, which in turn gave birth to the Flow blockchain. 

How NBA Top Shot, NFTs and challenges work

The NFTs on NBA Top Shot are called “Moments” because they depict various championship moments, such as on-court actions or memorable points. This is done through videos lasting only a few seconds. Each NFT video also features player statistics and codes indicating the rarity of the ‘Moment’. These non-fungible tokens are designed first and foremost as collectible items. However, you can “participate in challenges to earn new incredible Moments” or exclusive prizes such as match tickets. There are different types of challenges. In some, you get points based on the league performances of the players you want to play with. In others, it’s a matter of guessing which players will do certain things or obtain titles. For example “the player with the most points in the playoff game” or “the player who scores the most points in the … vs … game “. To start playing on NBA Top Shot, you first have to create an account by entering your personal data, confirming that you are at least 18 years old and having your residence in one of the countries where the project is active, including the US and the UK!

Where to buy NBA Top Shots and how much do they cost?

The value of NBA NFTs, like everything on the blockchain, varies over time and according to factors such as rarity. Tokens can be found as low as $2. However, the most expensive NBA Top Shots can go up to six figures. Since the launch of the first ‘Moments’, NBA Top Shot has generated more than $1 billion in sales. You can purchase individual NFTs or “Packs” containing a number of tokens. These “Packs” are often released in special editions (members on the platform will be notified of the drop 8 hours in advance). NBA Top Shot NFTs can be found directly on the platform’s marketplace or on secondary marketplaces such as OpenSea. For purchases you can use Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, DAI, USDC, Ether and also fiat currency (US dollar). Packs’ can also be purchased with FLOW, the native token of the blockchain.

Sorare vs NBA Top Shot: basketball on the blockchain

Basketball on the blockchain goes beyond NBA Top Shot! On the 7th of September 2022, Sorare, the well-known crypto fantasy football platform, announced that the NBA will be the next league to join the list. There are essentially two main differences between the platforms:

1. The blockchain on which they are built: while Sorare relies on Ethereum, NBA Top Shot uses Flow;
2. The topics of the NFTs: NBA Top Shot depicts significant moments in the form of videos, while Sorare displays the figurines of American basketball league players recorded on blockchain.

In general, NBA Top Shot can be said to be less of a play-to-earn and more of a collector-oriented platform than Sorare.

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The Web3 celebrates Her Majesty’s life: discover QueenE DAO and all the NFT collections created in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

The news of Queen Elizabeth II‘s passing on Thursday the 8th of September 2022 is the focus of all newspapers and social networks. A short time ago, the British monarch had spoken out on the world of digital markets. She communicated through the words of the then Prince Charles that she would take steps to strengthen the UK’s digital financial plan. After the news of the sovereign’s death, a number of series of digital artwork were created to pay a sincere tribute to the Queen, who was also loved by the people of the Web3. Discover the main NFT collections dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II!

NFT collections dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II

A few hundred NFT collections dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II were created on various blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon and the Binance Smart Chain. Beyond non-fungible tokens, meme coins such as Queen Elizabeth Inu, QueenDoge and Rip Queen Elizabeth have also popped up.

So, why are all these NFT collections about Queen Elizabeth appearing? For some it may have just been a way to exploit the media buzz of one of the biggest news stories of 2022. However, for most digital artists it was a real tribute to the most famous and beloved monarch ever. Digital artists have indulged in depicting the Queen in different styles and ways, but these celebratory tokens are not necessarily so recent. Some had chosen to depict the Queen and transpose her art onto blockchain before. These collections are of course now back in the limelight. Among the latter is QueenE DAO which is inspired by the DAO NFT Nouns.

QueenE DAO, become a member of the ‘British Parliament’

The QueenE DAO collection is an NFT project that was released in July 2022. It follows in the footsteps of the famous NFT Nouns DAO project. A DAO, or Decentralised Autonomous Organisation, is a type of organisation that is managed by smart contracts and that has a decentralised structure. Nouns is a Web3 platform built on the Ethereum blockchain, with the goal of building a project that is fully managed by all users who own the project’s native NFTs. This is made possible by periodic voting in which only those who own at least one NFT can participate. At this point, Nouns is pretty much an exclusive club, where everyone can get to know and interact directly with all the users who are part of the project. Very few people own Nouns NFTs .Few of them are minted, at the rhythm of one per day for just over a year. Let’s see how it works! On Nouns.wtf, the platform where Nouns’ digital artwork can be purchased, an NFT is generated every day consisting of a few traits that are randomly combined. Users who want to obtain the NFT can ‘challenge’ each other to bid in Ether until the auction ends exactly twenty-four hours after the digital artwork has been created. All Ether collected by the DAO is stored in a ‘common’ wallet whose contents are constantly visible to all users.

The QueenE project mirrors the features and ideas of Nouns. Instead of avatars depicting sharks or unicorns, QueenE’s NFT digital artworks are portraits of Queen Elizabeth that retain the pixelated style. QueenE’s NFTs are composed of six features including the background, face, clothing, head accessory, jewellery and portrait frame. These traits, as is often the case in NFT collections, are classified by rarity. 85% of the traits are common, 10% are rare and 5% are super rare. The rarity of NFTs will be linked to the voting power within the DAO. Voting power will be exercised within the QueenE parliament divided, as in reality, into two chambers. The House of Commons, composed of those who own at least one common QueenE NFT, and the House of Lords whose seats are reserved for owners of rare, super rare or legendary QueenE NFTs. Commons NFTs secure one vote for each NFT owned, while rare, super rare or legendary NFTs secure two votes.

QueenE’s revamped ‘treasury’ is the UnCommonwealth Treasury. Just like Nouns DAO it is also managing the project’s funds in a transparent manner. The QueenE DAO, which had been ‘dormant’ until a few days ago, saw an increase in sales volumes on the occasion of the passing of the iconic monarch. Will the love of the people of Web3 for the late Queen Elizabeth II triumph? Surely the NFT collections created to celebrate the monarch will remain as indelible memories engraved on blockchain.

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In collaboration with the Hedera blockchain, LG launches the LG Art Lab. Display your digital artwork and buy NFTs with HBAR on your smart TV !

Would you like to display your favourite NFTs and show them to your friends in your living room? Thanks to a new initiative of the tech company LG, in collaboration with the Hedera blockchain, you can now display your digital artwork and buy new ones through your LG smart TV. All from the comfort of your sofa! LG Art Lab is the name of the collaboration project with Hedera. It is a real NFT marketplace, where you can buy NFTs with the HBAR token, which will be accessible directly from your TV. Find out how to buy NFTs with the HBAR crypto, and how to turn your home into a digital art gallery!

Exhibiting NFTs? LG and the digital art gallery!

LG Art Lab is an NFT platform announced on the 5th of September 2022, which will be launched by the end of 2022 on the Hedera blockchain. This is not the first time the two companies have come into contact. In fact, LG has been part of Hedera’s board of directors since 2020. The marketplace and its application should be available by the end of the year in the United States. It will allow users to buy, sell and display digital artwork. The special feature of this marketplace is that it will be easily accessible and compatible with LG smart TVs. It is the perfect medium to display your NFT collection, thanks to the exceptional resolution quality of the images. LG Art Lab will function like a classic NFT marketplace, such as OpenSea, with the difference that purchases will be made with the HBAR token. The section dedicated to buying NFTs is called Drops, where artist profiles and previews of new works coming soon will be available with a countdown so you won’t miss anything new.

To enable users to purchase NFTs with the HBAR token directly from their smart TV, LG is also launching the Wallypto crypto wallet. By connecting to the LG Art Lab platform, the wallet will allow users to view all NFTs they own, as well as their available HBAR token balance. The platform will initially only be available for the US market. As can easily be guessed from the platform’s name, art will be the major focus of the application. The first partnership has already been unveiled, the featured artist will be Barry X Ball!

The first collection on LG Art Lab by Barry X Ball

Barry X Ball is a contemporary sculptor and artist famous for his interpretations of classical sculpture and modernist art created with cutting-edge techniques such as 3D printing and scanning.

Barry X Ball will make his debut in the digital art world with his first NFTs in a collection entitled “Metal” right on the LG Art Lab platform. Thanks to the resolution of LG smart TVs, users will be able to view all the textures, details and materials (including precious metals and stones) used in the artist’s sculptures.

LG chooses Hedera’s green blockchain

Why did LG choose Hedera for its NFT marketplace? The Hedera blockchain, which is a product of the HBAR Foundation, describes itself as an enterprise blockchain that can process transactions very cheaply and quickly. But how are Hedera and its HBAR token so efficient and cheap? The answer to this question lies in the way transactions are recorded on the network. A new structure called Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) was designed by software engineer Leamon Baird, who founded the project in 2015. Thanks to this, Hedera is able to process up to 10 thousand transactions per second.

Hedera’s blockchain works via a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm, called hashgraph. In addition to providing speed and scalability to the network, it is geared towards environmental sustainability. The latter is a value that the HBAR Foundation and its Hedera blockchain have adopted since their inception in 2017. The development team has been and is still committed to ensuring the network’s carbon neutral status by purchasing quarterly carbon credits (carbon offsets). The amount of these credits has been determined by TerraPass, an independent emissions assessment company.

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The future of the Moonbirds NFT collection is all about being on-chain. Let’s find out what the difference is between on-chain, in-chain and off-chain NFTs

PROOF, the Web3 startup that created the Moonbirds NFT collection, has just unveiled the project’s future plans. Among the planned features is making all its non-fungible tokens ‘in-chain’. You may have already heard about the difference between on-chain and off-chain NFTs. But what exactly is meant by ‘in-chain’? 

All the records in the Moonbirds collection

The NFTs of the Moonbirds collection were released in April 2022 and within 48 hours of launch, all 10,000 NFTs were sold out. Moonbirds is a PFP collection of images designed to be used as profile photos, depicting automatically generated, pixelated avatars of owls. According to CryptoSlam, Moonbirds ranks 10th in total sales of collections, PROOF’s NFTs have generated sales of over $590 million! Thanks to these impressive numbers and the support it has received from the industry, this collection has earned blue chip status for some. Moonbirds also stands out from other collections because it introduced the staking of NFTs, called ‘nesting’.

At the end of August 2022, PROOF (coordinated by Venture Capital investor Kevin Rose) offered an explanation for the future. The creation and storage of NFT projects, including Moonbirds spin-off collections, will be managed in-chain. To understand what in-chain NFTs are, let us first look at the difference between on-chain and off-chain NFTs.

On-chain and off-chain NFTs, what is the difference?

The parameter for recognising whether a non-fungible token is on-chain and an off-chain concerns its storage. We know that the ownership and uniqueness of NFTs is guaranteed by the blockchain, but where are NFTs stored? An NFT is composed of:

●     An ID: a unique identification code that distinguishes tokens from one another and is registered via smart contracts on blockchain;

●     Metadata: as digital content. Each NFT consists of a set of metadata that configures its appearance, such as shapes, colours, names, sizes, the type of hat, the plumage or expression of the owls (in the case of Moonbirds) but also information such as maximum supply.

The non-fungible token ID is always stored on blockchain, and functions as a certificate of authenticity and uniqueness of an NFT. However, metadata is often stored elsewhere, i.e. off-chain. Storing metadata off-chain is the most popular option used by creators of NFT collections, who rely on external, centralised or decentralised hosting services and servers. In contrast, storing an NFT on-chain means that the entire token – including metadata – exists on a blockchain.

Is on-chain storage better than off-chain storage?

On-chain storage may be preferable because all aspects of the token are directly manageable and verifiable by the owners. However, it is a very expensive route due to the size of the data that has to be recorded on the blockchain. JPEG images for instance contain a lot of data, and collections often consist of hundreds or thousands of images all different from each other. Most NFT projects, including CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club, have chosen to store their content off-chain.

As anticipated, off-chain hosting and archiving services can be either centralised or decentralised. With centralised hosting providers, there is a risk (although unlikely) that they could shut down at any time, jeopardising the existence of the stored NFTs. All that would remain for the owner would be the ID on the blockchain. Decentralised storage is managed by systems such as IPFS. When a file is stored on IPFS, it receives a unique hash of the content that links it to the entire network. Although NFTs on IPFS are not technically stored on the blockchain, no one can lose or hack files on IPFS as no one can shut down the cloud. This is because it is managed in a decentralised manner by thousands of nodes.

Moonbirds: what are in-chain NFTs?

In contrast to this, PROOF has a plan to make its NFTs ‘in-chain’. By this term, PROOF implies that not only the data storage will be on-chain, but also the creation itself: ‘to make sure that it is fully decentralised and visible for generations to come’. The metadata will therefore be created by the same smart contract that attests to the existence and certifies the authenticity of the token. In other words, the code that creates the digital artwork will be on the blockchain. Harri Thomas of PROOF explained that with this procedure, the graphic representation of each Moonbirds NFT “will be built by the smart contract itself from art layers, which will also be stored on the blockchain”.

PROOF and Moonbirds’ roadmap also includes the establishment of a DAO and a governance token. The launch of a spinoff collection called ‘Moonbirds Mythics’, which will comprise 20,000 NFTs and will be launched in early 2023. The new collection will not follow the pixel art aesthetic, the images will be drawn with a technique that mimics the freehand style. These new designs will be made possible thanks to newly obtained funding. In fact, PROOF has just raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z.

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The Cardano Foundation developers have announced the date for the hard fork: the Vasil update arrives on the 22nd of September 2022!

For major crypto projects, this September 2022 is the month to look to the future and get up to speed. The event on everyone’s mind is definitely Ethereum’s The Merge. However, Cardano and its crypto ADA (developed by one of Ethereum’s own founders, Charles Hoskinson) are ready to begin the Vasil update. The main goal of the update, or hard fork, is to increase the speed and scalability of Cardano‘s blockchain and make it generally more powerful and cheaper. These improvements are aimed at facilitating the development of decentralised applications (DApps), especially in the area of Decentralised Finance (DeFi), and increasing the possibilities of use cases for ADA. Let’s discover what is new with the Vasil update, coming at the end of September!

Cardano’s Vasil update arrives on the 22nd of September 2022

After some problems on the testnet that were solved efficiently and quickly by the Cardano team, the date for the hard fork of the ADA crypto blockchain has finally been announced. The Vasil update will take place on the 22nd of September 2022. Cardano is a blockchain created in 2015 and based on the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. This allows it to be highly scalable, meaning it can handle a large number of transactions per second. On the other hand, a hard fork is an update of a protocol in which very radical changes are implemented to the point of making it incompatible with previous versions.

But where does the Vasil update coming on the 22nd of September 2022 fit on Cardano’s roadmap? The Cardano roadmap is divided into five macro-phases, each of which has a main objective. At the moment, we are in the phase called Basho which wants to improve the scalability of the network as its primary objective. In other words, increasing the number of users who use it every day without worsening performance or making it more expensive. The Vasil hard fork will happen automatically: users with ADA crypto or using DeFi DApps on Cardano’s blockchain should not even notice it. Vasil will in fact be implemented using Cardano’s hard-fork combinator (HFC), an innovative technology that enables protocol transitions and updates without interrupting the smooth operation of the network.

Why is the update named as such? The name Vasil was chosen to pay homage to Vasil St. Dabov a Bulgarian developer who was the Chief Blockchain Advisor of a software research and development company named Quanterall before his passing in December 2021. Vasil St. Dabov was a very active member of the crypto community and an ambassador for Cardano. The date of the update is also symbolic, as the 22nd September coincides with the day on which Bulgaria, St. Dabov’s birthplace, celebrates its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

What changes will be implemented for Cardano users and developers?

Vasil will provide some key functionalities to enable the launch of further projects on Cardano. At the same time, it will offer an upgrade path (with increased speed, transactional capability and more powerful scripts) to existing DApps. Specifically, Vasil will modify the transaction validation and transmission system with a mechanism called Diffusion Pipelineing. With this mechanism, blocks will be added to the network when they are created and not only when they are complete. This optimises the timing of block validation and enables Cardano’s blockchain to not only guarantee faster transactions, but also to increase its security by making possible attacks much more complex.

However, the update was also designed with the developers in mind, i.e. those involved in creating decentralised applications on the network.

With Vasil, the programming language with which smart contracts are written on Cardano’s blockchain called Plutus will also be updated. The hard fork will give rise to Plutus V2, which will enable developers to develop more efficient and cost-effective DApps (from a transaction perspective).

To date, Cardano ranks 29th among all the blockchains in terms of volumes traded on its platforms, of which there are currently only twelve. The current total blockchain value (TVL) is around $80 million. We will see if the Vasil update, due on 22 September 2022 will help Cardano’s network make its way into the big world of DeFi and increase the use cases of crypto ADA.

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The update that will change Ethereum and crypto forever is coming. Find out 5 things you didn’t know about The Merge!

‘The Merge’ refers to the set of updates that will lead the Ethereum blockchain to change its consensus mechanism from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. In the crypto world, this has been the talk of the town for months. The Ethereum update is so important that ‘The Merge’ has become a commonly used term to indicate the final activation of the update and more generally the passage to the 2.0 version of Ethereum.

So, what will change with Ethereum 2.0? Transactions will be faster, cheaper and more green. The network will be more decentralised and secure, which will make the Ethereum blockchain more scalable and energy efficient. However, The Merge will not only impact Vitalik Buterin‘s blockchain, the upgrade will also change the crypto world forever. Ethereum is the blockchain on which the main Decentralised Finance protocols are built and in which the world of NFTs is developed. To learn more about the more technical aspects of The Merge, we refer you to Academy’s article on Ethereum 2.0. However, read on to discover 5 things you didn’t know about The Merge!

1.   Why is the Ethereum update called The Merge?

This Ethereum update is called ‘The Merge’ because it consists of the merging of two chains into one. With the update, Ethereum’s Beacon Chain and mainnet will be merged together. The former is the Proof-of-Stake network that has been active since 2020 and used as a ‘Consensus’ layer, but not yet for processing transactions. The mainnet, on the other hand, is the only ‘Execution’ layer of the blockchain on which miners will work until The Merge. With the completion of the upgrade, these two chains will be merged together to improve the performance of Ethereum.

2.   Why is the release date of The Merge changing?

The final phase and activation of the update was planned for September 2022. For a long time no official date for the release of The Merge was communicated. In the past months, the date has been postponed more than once. Even when September was identified as a possible date, the Ethereum developers only hinted at a broad activation period, namely between the 10th and the 20th of September. On the 6th September, Vitalik Buterin narrowed it down to between the 13th and 15th of the month. But why is the exact release date of The Merge not known? Ethereum’s developers did not schedule the update based on the calendar, and thus on a time parameter, but by referring to the Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD). The TTD is the value reached at which the Proof-of-Stake update will be released. It can be understood as similar to the score obtained in order to pass a level in a video game. The Merge will only be completed when the TTD of the value 58750000000000000 is reached. The TTD is the parameter that indicates the level of difficulty that miners have to face to validate the last block in Ethereum’s Proof-of-Work. This value depends on many factors and it is therefore not possible to establish with certainty when the network will reach that value. This is why the date of The Merge is constantly changing.

3.   Beyond Buterin, here is the team of The Merge

Among the thousands of programmers who keep the Ethereum protocol going, you may not know that 119 experts are working on The Merge. Together with this group, some prominent personalities from the crypto world have also joined. From the Ethereum Foundation, researchers Danny Ryan and Justin Drake have contributed directly to The Merge project. The former has been working on The Merge since 2017 (fun fact: The Merge and the move to PoS had already been suggested in 2015, shortly after the birth of Ethereum), in relation to issues such as scalability, sustainability and security. Drake, on the other hand, had a coordination and public relations role.

Vitalik Buterin, of course, also contributed to The Merge update as the mastermind behind the new understanding of Ethereum and as a populariser with the general public. We can credit Buterin for the design philosophy of the new consensus mechanism. Another key figure is Tim Beiko who heads the team of developers. Beiko became the main spokesperson on social media for the development team and managed the many steps necessary for The Merge. Among all the people working on The Merge, we should also mention Mikhail Kalinin of ConsenSys, a software development company that collaborates with Ethereum. They established the details of the Beacon Chain and, according to Beiko, Kalinin is one of those who ‘literally built and steered the ship’. Kalinin called his experience at Ethereum ‘an example of true diversification and decentralisation of work on a research and development project’.

4.   Will there be a new Ethereum 2.0 coin?

As the completion of The Merge approaches, many have wondered whether Ethereum 2.0, the new version of the Proof-of-Stake blockchain, will have a new coin. And again, what will happen to the existing ETHs in our wallets? To answer this question, you have to consider the two possible scenarios following the activation of the update. After The Merge there could be a hard fork of the blockchain in which Ethereum would split into two different chains, one with the consensus mechanism it has always had (PoW) and another that relies instead on staking to validate transactions. In this case, a new coin would be created accordingly, which is currently referred to as ‘ETHPOW’. The chain with the PoS consensus mechanism will retain Ether (ETH) as its native coin, and the PoW chain will instead continue mining ETHPOW. The PoW chain will only remain in existence as long as miners continue to use and support it.

Should a new cryptocurrency actually be created, it will be distributed via airdrop in a 1:1 ratio. Basically your ETH holdings will not change because of this. To prepare for The Merge on Young Platform, read the dedicated announcement.

5.   Sustainable NFTs in the spotlight

Among the 5 things you might not know about The Merge is the green revolution in the NFT world. Let’s consider that most non-fungible tokens are built on Ethereum. Following The Merge, there will be a drastic reduction in the environmental impact of NFT production and transactions. This is because the consensus mechanism that enables Ethereum activity will no longer rely on the computing power of the miners but on the mechanism of staking. In other words, all the electricity used to power the mining hardware will no longer be needed. All blockchain-related activities will be more energy sustainable. 

One of the main criticisms levelled at NFTs concerns the energy required for their ‘minting’, i.e. the process by which digital assets are created. Concerns about the pollution produced by non-fungible tokens have intensified, especially in the current context of an environmental and energy crisis. With greener NFTs, the sector could attract new enthusiasts and experience a creative rally. Creators and new projects will be able to indulge in creating art on the blockchain, no longer intimidated by the environmental footprint.

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