This Week in Crypto

Week of 9/12

It’s been a busy week in the crypto world, here are some of the most interesting events that have happened:

• Starbucks announced they will use the Polygon blockchain to launch an NFT loyalty program named the “Starbucks Odyssey” to mixed reactions from the public

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  . This is another big win in a line of significant corporate partnerships that the Polygon blockchain team has been able to secure. The program is a major step in bringing blockchain technology to regular people's everyday lives. Starbucks is making major strides in improving the crypto UX by not having the user bother with on/off ramps, on-chain transactions and wallet management.

• The world’s largest mining firm Ethermine is shuttering after Ethereum completes its transition to proof of stake. There was speculation that larger mining conglomerates would take their hashpower to POW chains such as ETC or the upcoming POW fork being championed by some Chinese miners, but it seems that each miner will have to decide that for themselves. ETC’s hash rate has gone parabolic recently as many miners have flocked to that chain

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• It was recently announced that an arrest warrant was issued by the South Korean government for the disgraced former head and founder of Terraform labs, Do Kwon, and 5 other individuals

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  . This was after months of investigation into Terraform labs by the South Korean authorities. Authorities are seeking legal action against founders for misleading the public. A successful outcome should help dissuade other ill-intentioned actors from trying to pull such charades in the crypto space lending the ecosystem some much needed safety and security.

• The Ethereum network successfully transitioned to a proof of stake consensus mechanism early Thursday morning. Anyone with 32 ETH, sufficient hardware and broadband connectivity can contribute to validating blocks on the ETH network. This change also opens the possibility of ETH becoming deflationary given enough network activity. It also rids the market of an estimated $10-20 million of daily sell pressure given that mining rewards are now 0. Initially the merge was scheduled to take place around 1 am EST, but as the merge got closer more and more miners stopped mining ETH contributing to longer block times delaying the merge for multiple hours. However, the merge proved successful, potentially signaling the next generation of on-chain activities

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  . For additional information on the Merge, check out this article we posted earlier this week:

  Ethereum Merge

1. https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2022/starbucks-brewing-revolutionary-web3-experience-for-its-starbucks-rewards-members/

2. https://2miners.com/etc-network-hashrate

3. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/09/14/s-korean-court-issues-arrest-warrant-against-terra-co-founder-do-kwon-report/

4. https://ultrasound.money/