This Week in Crypto – August 6th
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Ethereum’s Highly-Anticipated London Fork Goes Live!
As we discussed last week, the Ethereum community is buzzing for the highly anticipated London fork, which launched yesterday. The upgrade originally planned to be released Wednesday, took place on Thursday, August 5 around 9:00 a.m. (EDT). Scheduled to take place at block height 12,965,000, the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain was upgraded on or around Thursday afternoon. Community Manager and developer for Ethereum Foundation, Tim Beiko, revealed the “London Mainnet Announcement” with his post below.
Man, I’m so ready for Ethereum 2.0.
— Jeremy Gardner (@Disruptepreneur) August 4, 2021
I was literally talking about it since before Eth even launched.
I don’t believe most people truly understand how game-changing Serenity will be— Dapps like @AugurProject will be 100x more efficient and usable.
So excited.
The London fork will come with 5 new EIPs or Ethereum Improvement Proposals. They include:
- EIP-1559: Fee market change for ETH 1.0 chain
- EIP-3198: BASEFEE opcode
- EIP-3529: Reduction in refunds
- EIP-3541: Reject new contracts starting with the 0xEF byte
- EIP-3554: Difficulty Bomb Delay to December 1st, 2021
🦊Rolling out now on mobile and extension🔥
— MetaMask (@MetaMask) August 5, 2021
Don’t let gas fees catch you off guard!
Check out how we support EIP-1559 & learn:
✨Why EIP-1559 exists
✨All about the new UI & how to set the right gas fee
✨How to use the word “slippage” in everyday convohttps://t.co/xZCuy3rTtL pic.twitter.com/sZkQFTesYU
When discussing the upgrades, the community agrees some of the most impactful changes come from the EIP-1559 and EIP-3554 proposals. EIP-1559 will completely change Ethereum’s fee rate to a new scheme that makes the crypto asset “ether” deflationary. While EIP-3554 adjusts the Ethereum miner difficulty bomb to ease the transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). Node operators have been asked to upgrade their nodes as soon as possible.
New York City Exploring the Use of Blockchain for Land Deeds
The City of New York is experimenting with the use of blockchain to eliminate fraud in land sales. They plan to do this by linking newly sold property deeds to the blockchain network. The city’s finance department will be working with Medici Land Governance on a proof of concept blockchain for land records. Together, the MLG and the New York City Department of Finance (DOF) are working towards a solution. They plan to explore how blockchain could be used as a means of preventing deed fraud in land records. Together, they will work towards developing a proof-of-concept for applying blockchain technology to the city’s land records.
The department’s property records date back to 1996 for its automated system. In addition to those, MLG plans to include an additional 500,000 records onto the blockchain. This will allow the groups to display the deeds in their Department of Finance interface to test for accuracy. This will also increase transparency and reduce the chances of fraud. If this project is successful, it will be followed by a pilot incorporating user testing and operational efficiency improvements.
Financial Services Giant, Fidelity, Invests in Bitcoin Mining Firm
One of the largest financial services companies in the world once again invests in the future of cryptocurrency. Throughout July of this year, Fidelity Investments purchased a 7.4% stake in the Bitcoin Mining Firm, Marathon. This cost nearly $20 million for the shares, while simultaneously seeing an increase of 66% in bitcoin production month-over-month. This was published by Marathon Digital Holdings’ updates for the month of July.
A number of other large financial institutions have also recently purchased Marathon shares including Vanguard, Blackrock, and Susquehanna. To date, Marathon’s fleet is approximately 19,395 active miners which produce around 2 exahash per second (EH/s) of hashrate. Marathon also revealed that they signed an agreement to purchase 30,000 Antminer bitcoin mining rigs from Bitmain. Following the announcement, Marathon published statistics for its July performance.
Fidelity Investments is one of the largest asset managers in the world, handling $4.9 trillion in assets under management (AUM). This latest investment is not unusual, as many of the leading financial institutions hold vast amounts of cryptocurrency. Furthermore, the financial services giant’s BTC holdings today are approximately 6,225.6 BTC worth $268 million at the time of writing.
Marvel’s NFT Comic, “Super-D Figures” coming soon
Calling all Spidey fans! Starting tomorrow, on August 7 at 8 a.m. (PT), Spider-Man fans will be able to purchase unique NFT’s. These particular NFT’s include five unique interactive statues featuring Marvel’s Spider-Man. The announcements began on August 5, when Orbis and Marvel Entertainment kicked off the Veve Digital Collectibles’ “Marvel Month” celebration.
Bitcoin.com News was the first to report on Marvel Entertainment’s partnership with Orbis Blockchain Technologies Limited late last month. Together, they plan to issue the first NFT’s featuring the Marvel Super Hero, Spider-Man. In the announcement, they said, “The Spider-Man series drop is the first of many digital statues, digital comic books, and other digital collectibles in Veve’s Marvel Month initiative”. According to that press release, Veve’s Marvel Spider-Man statue project will include:
- Common – Spider-Man – The Amazing Spider-Man Price: $40.00 – Quantity: 32,000
- Uncommon – Spider-Man – Hangin’ Out Price: $50.00 – Quantity: 16,000
- Rare – Spider-Man – Jump Into Action Price: $100.00 – Quantity: 9,000
- Ultra-Rare – Spider-Man – Animated Price: $250.00 – Quantity: 2,500
- Secret-Rare – Spider-Man – Ultimate Animated Price: $400.00 – Quantity: 1,000
Just the Beginning…
“Spider-Man is one of the most legendary Super Heroes in the Marvel Universe, so there was no better way to kick off our global digital collectibles experience with Veve… We can’t wait to bring Marvel fans and collectors even more exciting drops throughout August and beyond.”
Dan Buckley, President of Marvel Entertainment
Marvel says that this is “just the beginning”. One thing turning heads are NFTs for a unique Marvel Comics Issue #1 from 1939. The announcement notes, “each version will have a different cover and a different level of rarity and offered in a ‘blind box’ format for $6.99”. In addition to those already listed, an exclusive line of “Super-D figures” from Marvel will be released on Veve’s application as well. Marvel notes that “each digital figure will have a different level of rarity and will also be sold in a blind box format for $13.00”. DC Comics will be releasing their own NFT in the future as well.
That’s the end of this week’s recap. If you want to learn more about cryptocurrency with NetCents, make sure to subscribe to our blog below! If you see an interesting story that you think we should feature, send us a message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Did you miss last week’s news? Read it here!
