The Echo Weekly

Wednesday 9.28.22

Fellow Miners! We are back with another edition of The Echo Weekly.

The Echo Weekly is once again on a regular schedule. We will recap the most recent developments in Concave, while highlighting some of the amazing contributions from the community and team. Now without further ado, let us get started.

Summary

• Ethereum 2.0 and the merge - what you need to know
• CNV Statistics
• Meet the Team
• Miner of the Week
• Stay Tuned: Transparency Report

What is the #EthereumMerge?

The Merge represents the Ethereum network’s shift to proof-of-stake (PoS), its new system (also called a “consensus mechanism”) for authenticating crypto transactions. The new system will replace proof-of-work (PoW), the more power-hungry mechanism pioneered by Bitcoin.

Why is it called the Merge?

Ethereum already has a PoS network called the Beacon Chain (introduced in 2020), but it is not yet used for processing transactions. For now, it’s essentially just a staging area for computers operating the Ethereum network to prepare for the PoS upgrade.

Ethereum’s full transition to PoS requires merging the Beacon Chain (called the “Consensus” layer) with Ethereum’s PoW mainnet (the “Execution” layer).

How does Proof-of-Stake (PoS) differ from Proof-of-Work (PoW)?

Proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-work (PoW) differ in how they decide who has the right to record the next “block” of transactions on the network.

In today’s PoW system, Ethereum miners compete to publish blocks by racing to solve cryptographic puzzles, much like in Bitcoin.

In the upcoming PoS system, validators that stake (lock up) at least 32 ether (~$50,000) with the network are randomly selected to create blocks. The more ether one stakes, the more likely one is to be selected.

In both systems, the miner/validator that wins a block is rewarded with a mix of transaction fees and newly minted ether (ETH). PoS validators also receive rewards for doing other activities to help secure the network.

Is Proof-of-Stake better than Proof-of-Work?

There are trade-offs.

According to the Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit that funds Ethereum ecosystem development, PoS will cut Ethereum’s energy usage by around 99.95%. PoS advocates also argue that PoW mining centralizes control in the hands of those who can afford to buy fancy crypto mining rigs, called ASICs. They say PoS – which hands network control to those who “stake” crypto with the network – makes attacks economically infeasible and self-defeating.

PoW proponents counter that PoS staking carries its own centralization and security risks, making it possible for malicious actors to directly “buy” control of the network. They also point out that PoS is a less battle-tested system than PoW, which has proven resilient as the backbone of the two largest blockchain networks.

What’s on the Ethereum roadmap after the Merge?

After the Merge, Ethereum’s core developers will continue working on the open-source network as they did before, with improvements to network fees, speeds and security slated for the months and years ahead.

One focus for developers post-Merge will be sharding, which aims to expand Ethereum’s transaction throughput and decrease its fees by spreading network activity across several “shards” – almost like lanes on a highway. (Updates of this sort were initially slated to accompany the Merge – originally called “Ethereum 2.0,” or “ETH2” – but were deprioritized with the success of third-party rollups at addressing some of the same problems).

Also on the roadmap is enshrined proposer builder separation (PBS), which will separate the “builders” that add transactions to blocks from the “proposers” who put them forward for approval from the wider network. PBS is pitched as a way to help tackle Ethereum’s maximal extractable value (MEV) problem.

CNV statistics

Meet the Team

This week we bring your attention to one of our fearless marketing leaders and he goes by the moniker Bentj8w7#3763. Bent’s hobbies include toy making, collectibles, reading, playing chess and watching films. Word on the street he had his hand in making a full size version of Darth Maul just for fun. He was brought into Concave by another familiar face and that face is the one and only Nate the Noble. He envisions Concave as being a Swiss Army Knife of DeFi with a purpose of breaking the mold of traditional DeFi projects already in existence and leveraging all tools to bring value back to the community. Future aspirations for Concave, in Bent’s perspective, would be for it to advance in the areas of lending and borrowing effectively in the DeFi space.  Outside of Concave Bent of course works in Marketing so his skills and strengths really help to drive the brand vision forward. Bent is an individual we value on the team that always has a glass half full mentality. He always keeps us based and reminds us to stop and smell the flowers every once in a while as all things work out in the end. We are happy and excited to have a miner of this caliber of work ethic on the team.

Miner of the Week

This week we are proud to announce the Miner of the Week goes to the one and only Nemonasa. Nemonasa is another miner that always shows up for events and contributes at a high level whenever challenged. Nemonasa is always aiming to spread the message about Concave by regularly tweeting, retweeting, liking and commenting on all things about the protocol.  He is an integral part of the daily spoon drop rhythm and is always raising the bar on participatory efforts. Nemonasa is definitely a master of the P.E.E.P.O system and is always pushing to maximize his time and effort. We love to see him in the chats reiterating positivity and welcoming new miners to the Discord. Congratulations Nemonasa for the well-deserved Miner of the Week.

Transparency Report

The Concave team strives to bring transparency to the community regarding new initiatives, ongoing initiatives, future plans and partnerships to the greatest extent possible. Furthermore, we understand that the most recent transparency report managed to bring up more confusion rather than less which was exactly opposite of what was intended. We have listened and we are working to revise certain aspects of the report to make things even more clear and apparent to each and everyone of you.  Be on the lookout for a new report coming later this month.

https://spoon.fyi/transparencyreport

Fellow miners, that's all for today!

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