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Markets & Business
Vladimir Putin Bans Digital Payments in Russia (1 minute read)
Vladimir Putin signed a law banning digital payments in Russia on July 8. The use of digital and utility tokens as a means of payment for goods, services, and products is now banned. Russia's Ministry of Finance introduced a bill to parliament in February to regulate cryptocurrencies, but the Bank of Russia has been pushing for crypto activity to be banned. Russia has allegedly been using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions this year following its invasion of Ukraine.
Ethereumβs Merge Projected for September According to 'Soft' Timeline (3 minute read)
Ethereum's Merge may take place on the week of September 19. The Merge will see Ethereum move from the energy-intensive Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism to a more efficient Proof-of-Stake system. It is not expected to reduce Ethereum's fees and slow transaction speeds, but it will have a significant impact on the network's energy use. While the announcement gave a rare hard date for the Merge, the timeline is still very likely to change.
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Innovation & Launches
Yuga Labs Opens Otherside for βFirst Tripsβ in Bored Ape Metaverse (3 minute read)
Yuga Labs invited 4,300 players to take a tour of its Otherside metaverse gaming platform on Saturday. Only Otherdeed owners and selected third-party developers are allowed to participate in the game during its first phase. Otherdeed owners will be able to contribute to the platform's construction and core capabilities using the Otherside Development Kit. Otherside aims to be interoperable with other platforms and contribute to an open metaverse in the future.
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Guides & Resources
Rocket Pool: the scaling thread (2 minute read)
Rocket Pool is a decentralized, permissionless, non-rent seeking, fully-Ethereum liquid staking protocol. It is introducing less ETH bonded minipools, Staking as a Service, and integrated solo staker migration to help the pool grow significantly and easily compete at scale with Lido. This Twitter thread explores the three scaling solutions in detail and explains how they work.
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Miscellaneous
Some potential use-cases for crypto (4 minute read)
In this Twitter thread, Sam Bankman-Fried presents several use-cases for crypto. He covers payments, market structure, and social media. Crypto makes sending money cheaper, faster, and less risky. It can make trading stocks almost instant with fewer fees, creating a simpler, more equitable, and less risky market structure. Crypto can make social media more censorship-resistant and make different networks compatible.
A number of people have asked me how Coinbase wins in this environment, and turns it into an opportunity for growth (1 minute read)
Coinbase is well capitalized, trusted, easy-to-use, and it features an integrated product suite. Users can trade, stake, pay, borrow, create, and more on the platform without having to understand the technical details of the technology. Coinbase will stay focused on shipping trusted, easy-to-use, and fully integrated crypto products during the crypto market downturn.
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