What's next for Ethereum? and the first PoS NFTs!

Hey all, happy Monday and welcome back to Decentra Daily!

Estimated read time: 4 minutes 40 seconds

Today's news:

• What’s next for Ethereum?

• Decentra Daily Wolf Game giveaway!

• The first Ethereum PoS NFTs

What’s next for Ethereum?

Explaining the surge, verge, purge & splurge 💦😳

So the merge went successfully – even if traders sold the news. Now, Ethereum should be a more efficient, green, and – depending upon your views on PoS – secure blockchain.

But, like any founder with a deep love of fantasy RPGs, the merge constituted just one chapter in an epic story that Vitalik has planned for his protocol.

Speaking at a conference earlier in the year, VB claimed that the merge will bring Ethereum to 55% completion.

Afterward comes the surge, verge, purge, and splurge – 4 more system-wide upgrades designed to position Ethereum as the universal layer 1 of web3.

So what do the terms mean?

The surge

This phase of updates will focus on making it easier for layer 2 projects to scale the Ethereum network. Layer 2 protocols run on Ethereum and increase functionality for users.

One way Ethereum could help layer 2 projects is through sharding. This is the process of breaking up the blockchain into separate elements, reducing the demands of running it.

Things are kept things organized with a “coordination layer”. Those in favor of sharding also believe it increases security and decentralization.

The surge is expected to roll out at some point next year.

The verge

The verge is about upgrading the way that blocks on Ethereum’s chain are verified, making it easier for nodes to prove and validate information.

This stage is highly technical (tbh, they all are!) and involves moving from a proof method called Merkle trees to an adapted method called Verkle trees.

The purge

After the scalability improvements of the surge and verge comes a big clean-up phase. The purge is about deleting redundant historical data so that nodes on the network don’t need as much hard drive space.

The result? A huge increase in transaction speed – upwards of 100,000 transactions per second, according to Vitalik.

The splurge

Part 4 in the roadmap is about completing all the extra tasks thrown up by the previous stages, truly bringing Ethereum into a new phase of its history.

So how long until Ethereum reaches “100% completion?”

The merge took about five years to happen. So… it could be a while until we see the splurge and the end of this stage in Ethereum’s evolution.

Although, it’s probably not quite right to think of Ethereum as having a completion date. Instead, it will continue to evolve and respond to whatever needs and issues arise in web3’s future.

Let’s meet back here in 2032 for an update. // Joe

Decentra Daily Wolf Game Giveaway

Here's your reminder that this month is our Wolf Game giveaway! We are giving away a 'starter pack' worth >1.5 ETH ($2,500):

Successful newsletter referrals earn 5 entries each

Any interactions on our Wolf Game social posts also act as entries to the giveaway, you can read all about the giveaway in this post:

The first Ethereum PoS NFTs

We’ve merged! Don’t you feel better now?

Ethereum has officially transitioned from securing transactions by Proof of Work (PoW) validation to a Proof of Stake (PoS) method.

That means no more miners spending vast amounts of energy and making high commissions, with invested ETH holders instead responsible for running validation software.

The result? A 99% reduction in energy consumption that supposedly knocks 0.2% off the world’s total electricity usage – that’s comparable to taking The Netherlands off the grid.

ETH also becomes a deflationary currency, with more funds being burned from circulation than added.

Some people are feeling so good about the merge that they’re already minting NFTs.

Yep. 36.8 ETH (or around $60,000) in gas fees to mint transaction 0 on the new Ethereum chain.

The NFT collection is called The Transition and consists of 100 images in the style of an old computer display, containing the historic chain metadata and Ethereum’s mascot, the panada.

Part of the collection contract allows Vitalik Buterin to claim any NFT editions not already up for auction, as a way “to honor Ethereum.”

Worth it? Hmm. Edition 100/100 is currently up for auction on the project’s site, with a bid of 1.67 ETH.

The Transition is just the first in a wave of NFTs commemorating the merge:

• The final PoW NFT was from Vanity Blocks, a collection designed to fill up an entire block on the chain. It’s called The Last POW Block and was minted for an equally crazy 31.5 ETH.

• BLOOM is a “web3-native lifestyle brand” with ambitions in the tokenized fashion world. They’ve announced the “first” collection of ETH PoS PFP avatars with fashion-related traits.

• Web3 giant ConsenSys is dropping a free commemorative collection called Regenesis, celebrating the efforts of Ethereum devs and the increased sustainability, scalability, and security that comes with PoS. The collection includes limited NFTs with eth team members’ names embedded in the metadata.

• Beeple made a commemorative Everyday for the Merge.

A piece of blockchain history… or the definition of buying the news?

As for ETH, prices have dropped sharply as traders look to profit from all the mainstream attention brought on by the merge:

Be careful out there!

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InfiniMerge is live, and these other games will be released:

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Here's the whitepaper if you want to dive in and learn more!

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this article/newsletter should be considered financial advice. The purpose is to inform readers of the current trends and news in the web3 space. We encourage every reader to do their own research and not act upon information put forth by Decentra Daily.