Weekly News - 12/2/2020 (Patreon)

Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 staking has launched

Tell me more! The brand-new Beacon Chain, kicking off staking for ETH 2.0 launched at noon UTC on December 1st marking the first time that you can stake Ethereum and the start of a long road to launch Ethereum 2.0! The Beacon Chain and the move to proof of stake is a foundational change that helps improve the sustainability, scalability and security of the Ethereum blockchain.

In order to stake Ethereum and become a validator, you’ll need a minimum of 32ETH to deposit and it does come with some obligations. You’ll be storing data, processing transactions and adding new block to the blockchain. You’ll be rewarded for staking your ETH on Beacon, however it’s worth reminding that there is an element of risk involved. You could lose ETH for failing to validate, going offline and if there was an attack or issue on the chain. It is also worth noting that you won’t be able to withdraw your stake until the mainnet has been docked with the Beacon Chain system sometime in 2021/2022 (phase 1.5)

If you’re interested in staking your Ethereum, you can read more about it here:

https://ethereum.org/en/eth2/staking/

VISA partnering with Circle Internet Financial to provide USDC capabilities to 60 million merchants

Visa won’t offer custodial services of the currency, but immediately sees Circle helping select Visa merchants to start integrating the USDC software into their platforms to enable sending and receiving payments. What this really means is that not too far from now, merchants will be able to take payments via USDC from any international customer or business that’s supported by Visa and then in turn, convert those USDC into the local currency. The plan is for Circle to complete Visa’s “Fast Track” program within the next year, then start issuing Visa cards with USDC features enabled.

The Fast Track program at Visa has already onboarded 25 cryptocurrency wallet providers including BlockFi, Fold and Cred.

Why does this matter? I personally see this as a marker in the process of finishing the infrastructure and user experience needed to onboard the masses. Between this, Paypal and Square with Venmo early next year, we’re seeing major ways to start paying and transferring crypto that people already know how to use. This is a huge on ramp into crypto and blockchain and a clear indicator of the new system rollout being closer and closer.

Facebook set to launch Libra early next year, Libra association rebrands to “Diem”

Oh! here we go, the one we’re all waiting for… Originally aimed at being an internationally used token backed by fiat currencies and a huge group of corporate giants, Libra got re-pointed to a different purpose after regulators jumped on the case, causing the development of the token to come to a screeching halt. Following that, many of the corporate partners involved such as PayPal, Mastercard and Stripe bailed out and went on to pursue other angles in the cryptocurrency space.

Now Libra is resurfacing as a stable coin backed 1-2-1 with the USD and a much more limited scope, although still under the microscope as a potential security, Libra is awaiting approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority and expects a result in January 2021.

Some of the remaining partners such as Spotify have indicated that they plan to use the token as a payment method after a wait and see period (likely to gather reactions from the public to the token and also the regulatory bodies).

But that’s not all, the Libra Association has for some reason decided to rebrand to “Diem” and has been staffing up with many experts ready for the launch of the token. Why Diem? Well that would indicate a new day for the project… “The Dawn of a New Day”? HMMMMMMMM, where have I heard that one before?

Why is this important though? Whether you love or hate Libra and Facebook, the impact that it will likely have on the landscape, market and prices is dramatic. Just the announcement of the token initially drove a massive amount of general interest that the market reacted to. Libra launching could be another one of those moments where blockchain and cryptocurrencies become far more mainstream.

President of the European Central Bank far prefers her own digital euro efforts versus Bitcoin

Pontificating about the future of the Euro, Christine Legarde, the President of the European Central Bank, declared that Bitcoin “does not fulfill all the functions of money” while pivoting to introduce the idea of the digital Euro that would serve as a compliment to cash in the Euro block. She still maintains that crypto assets pose risks (as if any money or stock doesn’t…) but believes her ideas for the digital Euro would create more jobs and be “important”.

She says: “A digital Euro would also be an emblem of the ongoing process of European integration and ultimately help to unify Europe’s digital economies”

Well that’s lovely, but I’m not sure that Europe is sooo integrated these days, I mean there’s Brexit and grumblings in other countries thinking the same ideas.

BUT, we must remember, this is a person who is key to the plans at the highest of levels, she knows things and stuff.

Ideaology introduces blockchain “collabvesting”

“Support bright ideas through crowdfunding” Ideaology is a new blockchain ecosystem and token designed to incentivize ideas and startups. Part Patreon, part Kickstarter and part Upwork/Fiverr, Ideaology aims to create a “digitally focused, self-sustaining environment where businesses can be nurtured and careers can thrive”

At the center of all this is an ER20 token for both utility and payment as well as a decentralized marketplace. This could all fizzle out or could be the start of another piece of the future puzzle of how companies will be formed and people will work in the emerging blockchain world. Estimates guess that there are somewhere over 1 billion freelancers across the planet and offering a blockchain based solution could very well be the future of how that economy works. Or not. I guess we’ll see!

Utah Monolith Updates: Removed, replaced with tiny pyramid AND a new one discovered!

The monolith is gone! Someone took it and replaced it with a tiny metal pyramid. A photographer claims he saw 4 people push the monolith over and cart it off in a wheelbarrow. Later on, one of them posted a video of them doing the deed on TikTok. To plug the hole, they left a tiny metal pyramid (apparently a piece of the original structure) and a few stones. Very nice.

HOWEVER, this is not the end folks! Another one has been discovered, this time on the other side of the planet in Romania, overlooking an archaeological site on the Bâtca Doamnei plateau, outside of Piatra Neamt.

It stands the same height as the last one, made again of some metal and has circular markings all over it.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=397373748045156

Now that we’ve established that this is obviously aliens, we can move on to the next question – Which Aliens. What is their motive. WHY!

Where will the next one pop up, is there a purpose? Are these bored people entertaining people in a pandemic? Is there a larger plan with these?

Underwater “Stone Henge” found in Lake Michigan

I’m always excited when ancient sites are discovered, even more so when they’re old AND underwater. So this week, I was super excited when Beth on our team sent me this piece of news detailing a 9,000 year old structure discovered under Lake Michigan at a depth of around 40 meters down. Archaeologists were using sonar techniques to look for things at the bottom of the lake, mostly finding things like cars and boats then accidentally found this amazing ancient structure in the sonar data. What’s interesting is this discovery actually happened a few years ago but hadn’t managed any traction until now. It’s not verified as “authentic” yet as apparently, they haven’t been able to find any petroglyph experts with the diving skills.

There is also what appears to be a carving of a Mastadon that has survived the erosion, which makes sense as they would have roamed this area in the time period and beyond before being wiped out

I look forward to seeing more about this as it develops!

Everyone’s getting the Covid Vaccines – Russia included

Rather amazingly, it seems like many countries seem to be getting vaccines appear at the same time from totally different companies. The latest I’m seeing is the Sputnik V vaccine that is starting to roll out in the next few days in Russia. They have 2 million doses ready to go, then plan a large scale roll out from there. Teachers and doctors will be the first recipients of this vaccine and as it becomes available will be free and voluntary (for now!). As with all the other vaccines, this is touted as having a 90% plus effectiveness. One other interesting detail, over 100,000 Russians have already had the vaccine prior to the launch… this apparently does not include Putin though.

The UK has become the first country to approve the Pfizer vaccine and immunizations start next week…

That’s all for this week folks, as the year draws to a close, we’re definitely seeing the chaos ramp up alongside the Schumann resonance which has been hitting new highs in the last few days. I’m sure there will be much more crazy for us in the weeks to come, but out of this we’re really starting to see awareness and adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies ramp up in a big way. Just in the last few days, enjoying a nice cigar at our favorite place, Jamie and I have overheard many crypto conversations from all kinds of interesting people. It’s getting real now, you can feel it and with the Bitcoin ATH being smashed the pace is moving very quickly. Keeping up with it is the next game for us all!

Phil