Table of Contents
Bitcoin News: 7th November 2021
- Reddit to reportedly tokenize karma points and onboard 500M new users [LINK]
- What next for Shiba Inu (SHIB) following its 50% crash? [LINK]
- Ethereum Is The Center Of The Crypto Economy – Here’s Why [LINK]
- Red Bull F1 Completes Limited-Edition NFT Collection [LINK]
Reddit to reportedly tokenize karma points and onboard 500M new users
According to a newly hired Reddit programmer, the American social media giant Reddit may soon turn users’ karma points into Ethereum-based (ERC-20) tokens, onboarding 500 million new crypto users in the process.
Rahul, a Reddit programmer, highlighted Reddit’s efforts to boost user interaction through various cryptocurrency initiatives in a series of tweets. In July 2021, Cointelegraph announced that the site had launched Community Points, a layer-two rollup based on Arbitrum technology for its rewards points. As stated on the website:
“Your Community Points are stored on the blockchain, apart from Reddit, and can only be controlled by you (much like Bitcoin (BTC)!).”
Because of Reddit’s relationship with Offchain Labs’ Arbitrum network, a second blockchain instance will be created to store users’ tokenized community points.
Currently, 80,000 community points from two subreddits — r/cryptocurrency and r/FortNiteBR — have been transferred to the Rinkeby Testnet on the Arbitrum network, which will be scaled for gasless transactions, according to Rahul:
Furthermore, Reddit communities will be able to fork blockchains based on community decisions, enabling for the exploration of new revenue models with Web 3.0.
“If we all pull this off, 500 million web2 users will be onboarded into web3, and there will be no going back.” Let me repeat that: 500 million new cryptocurrency users.”
Reddit has hosted a variety of community-driven crypto initiatives, such as Dogecoin (DOGE) fundraisers, and it continues to serve a large crypto community.
On Oct. 22, it was claimed on Reddit that a platform responsible for “millions of people to produce, buy, sell, and use NFT-backed digital items” was looking for a senior backend developer. According to the job advertising on Reddit:
“With each new NFT project, a thriving community of owners emerges. We anticipate that this trend will continue, and that NFTs will play an increasingly important part in how people support their favourite creators and communities.”
What next for Shiba Inu (SHIB) following its 50% crash?
Shiba Inu has been on the rise recently, reaching an all-time high of $0.00008876 last week and leapfrogging Dogecoin in the process. However, since then, the contentious meme coin’s momentum has slowed significantly, causing a sell-off that saw the price plummet to $0.00004264 on Thursday, a 52 percent decrease in just seven days.
Given the severity of the loss, particularly at a time when huge capitalization such as Bitcoin have been relatively stable, critics are predicting that things will get worse. Are they, however, correct?
Shiba Inu’s price performance in October astounded sceptics, with a month-end gain of 730 percent. According to analysts, this was primarily because to speculations of the $SHIB token being listed on Robinhood and Kraken. However, these rumours have yet to be confirmed.
Things took a turn for the worst this week when a Shiba Inu whale transferred billions of $SHIB tokens, raising concerns about a large-scale exodus. In addition, the occurrence brought attention to the problem of whale dominance in the Shiba Inu ecosystem.
As October drew to a conclusion, it was revealed that one trader had put $8,000 into $SHIB in August of last year, and it had now risen to a massive $5.7 billion.
This same investor, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, a crypto forensics blog, is responsible for shifting billions of dollars in tokens over four transactions, totaling $2.78 billion.
“It appears that four transactions totaling $2.78 billion were made out of that account yesterday, each sending $695 million of SHIB to a separate account.
Whoever it is bought the SHIB for a pittance on Uniswap approximately a year ago.”
According to address analysis, the top ten holders control 67 percent of the Shiba Inu tokens. This is a modest decrease from the previous month’s result of 72 percent.
This has been seized upon by critics as another further proof of the company’s bad fundamentals. When it comes to the concentration of tokens in only a few hands, this is the situation.
Genuine crypto initiatives, according to crypto investor Aaron Brown, have a genuine use case and do not rely on hype or “who has how much of it” to change the price. Brown expressed concern that $SHIB’s ownership concentration indicates “a rigged game.”
“However, concentrated ownership suggests a rigged game for crypto with no underlying economics—whose value is determined only by speculation.”
The likelihood of $SHIB becoming listed was discounted by Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev, who cited regulatory scrutiny as the cause. While Kraken first stated that they would sell the token if they received 2,000 likes on a tweet, despite receiving 80,000 likes, they have subsequently abandoned the plan.
With meme coins taking a beating in recent days, it’s time to consider whether the hype train has run its course.
Ethereum Is The Center Of The Crypto Economy – Here’s Why
A wide range of analysts consider Ethereum to be the cynosure of the crypto economy.
Its claim to the top rank is supported by the intersection of the metaverse, DeFi, and NFTs.
Before it can assume the role of King in the digital market, Ethereum will have to fight its “killers.”
The events of 2021 have sparked heated debates regarding the future of cryptocurrencies and their role in the surge of technological advancements. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency with a wide range of applications, is at the centre of the hype.
In the discussion over which cryptocurrency will take the central spot in the sector, Ryan Watkins, a researcher at a top analytical organisation, Messari, has pitched his tent with Ethereum. He took to Twitter to express his unshakeable faith in the asset’s capacity to contribute meaningfully despite its flaws.
“Markets are waking up to the fact that $ETH represents a bet on Internet Money, The Metaverse, DeFi, NFTs, and Web 3 all packaged into one formidable asset,” Watkins added. “The crypto economy revolves around $ETH.”
It’s difficult to disagree with his viewpoint, especially in light of recent happenings on the network. As a result of Facebook’s push into the metaverse, Metaverse token prices skyrocketed, and Ethereum-based services all over the metaverse saw their worth skyrocket. Following Facebook’s announcement, the prices of Sandbox and Decentraland skyrocketed, with Ethereum at the centre of it all. Since the announcement, Ethereum has risen to a new all-time high of $4,638 per coin, with trading volumes hovering around $15 billion.
In the year 2021, NFTs became popular, and guess who was the driving force behind it? Ethereum. Ethereum is often regarded as the de facto home of DeFi, as multiple protocols rely on it, and Ethereum accounts for more than 69 percent of DeFi TVL. Over 3,000 Dapps are presently hosted on the Ethereum network, and as the world moves toward a decentralised future, Ethereum is already a foot in the door.
Ethereum has a long way to go before it can overtake Bitcoin, which currently holds 43.01 percent of the market. Despite its great numbers, Ethereum only has 19.5 percent of the market and will need to double its market share before it can compete with Bitcoin.
There’s also the age-old issue of Ethereum gas fees, which might hinder the network’s efforts to become the crypto economy’s hub. Projects have been migrating to ETH killers like Solana and Polkadot as gas prices have risen.
“High gas fees have been a thing forever now,” one user says, and wonders why the network is still so dominating. Institutional investors may have seen the end game and are continuing to invest in the asset.
With the development of Ethereum 2.0 in full swing, a solution to its increasing gas problem appears on the horizon. The Altair upgrade went live at the end of October, and further upgrades are in the works ahead of the Merge.
Red Bull F1 Completes Limited-Edition NFT Collection
The latest instalment of Red Bull Racing Honda’s initial NFT collection has been launched. The firm is offering fans the chance to acquire a limited edition NFT of the 2021 ‘RB16B’ in Sergio “Checo” Perez’s distinctive livery, continuing the concept of the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix and F1 driver Sergio “Checo” Perez.
Checo’s RB16B charger is the newest and last NFT to be added to Red Bull Racing Honda’s first-ever experiment in the NFT collectibles arena, which was initially announced a few days ago with the unveiling of the ‘Red Bull Racing Collectibles’ series.
This collection is part of a collaboration with Tezos and is marketed as a tribute to the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix, particularly star racer Sergio “Checo” Perez. Apart from the RB16B, other Mexican Grand Prix 2021 themed NFTs in the collection include Checo’s race suit and helmet, as well as fellow Red Bull racer Max Verstappen’s race suit.
Checo’s limited-edition helmet NFT was given away for free to early-bird fans as part of a promotion, but it quickly ran out. Sergio “Checo” Perez is probably best known for the rise of F1 racing NFTs.
Tezos was first introduced as Red Bull’s official blockchain partner in May, as part of a multi-year partnership that would see the two firms collaborate to create Red Bull’s first-ever NFT fan experience. Tezos logo was also added on Red Bull’s official liveries as part of the partnership, but we haven’t seen any tangible effects yet.
They aren’t the first F1 team to do so, as McLaren partnered with Tezos in June to develop its inaugural NFT collection, which was distributed on the Tezos blockchain in October of this year. Fans can gather components of the MCL35M 2021 Formula One Race Car through the ‘McLaren Racing Collective.’
Both Red Bull and McLaren’s NFT collections are available through the Sweet NFT platform, which added support for Tezos just last month.
Tezos, which was launched in 2018, is an open-source blockchain that can be used to create smart contract-based apps and offers developers an alternative to Ethereum.
Tezos has added support for the minting of NFTs to its blockchain platform, and despite its low adoption compared to Ethereum, it has quickly established itself as a worthy runner-up. This is owing in part to agreements with well-known businesses like McLaren and Red Bull, which have aided in increasing acceptance.
Read Yesterday’s news here.
