September 22, 2022

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day

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Hello and welcome to The Node. I'm Daniel Kuhn, here to take you through the latest in crypto news and why it matters. In today's newsletter: Kraken's Jesse Powell will step down as CEO, Cardano's highly anticipated Vasil hard fork starts and Helium ditched its own blockchain in favor of Solana after community vote.

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– D.K.

Today's must-reads

Top Shelf

Kraken's Jesse Powell Will Step Down as CEO of Crypto Exchange: Jesse Powell, co-founder of crypto exchange Kraken, is planning to step down as CEO but will become chairman of Kraken's board and continue working on product development and crypto industry advocacy. Powell said his decision to step back was because of Kraken growing in size: "It's just gotten to be more draining on me, less fun" and not spurred by controversies within the exchange.

Earlier this year, Powell criticized a contingent of "woke activists" inside the company and told unhappy employees to quit, sparking a social-political debate that roiled the crypto industry and beyond. One month later, Kraken was reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department on suspicion it allowed Iranian users to utilize the site's services in violation of federal sanctions.

What Cardano's Highly Anticipated Vasil Hard Fork Will Bring: The Cardano blockchain will carry out its much-anticipated Vasil hard fork over a period of five days, starting today. The hard fork is a backward-incompatible upgrade taking place on the main network that is intended to enrich smart contract capabilities, increase the chain's throughput and reduce costs.

Helium Ditched Own Blockchain in Favor of Solana After Community Vote: Helium community members have voted to move the decentralized WiFi network from its blockchain, officially known as HIP 70, to the Solana blockchain. The move will transfer all tokens, applications and governance to the network, aiming to help scale the protocol through more efficient transactions as well as interoperability.

US Stablecoin Bill Negotiations Wrestled Over Digital Dollar Approval: Democrats pushed for a provision directing the U.S. Federal Reserve to move forward on a digital dollar, but the negotiations concluded with a new directive for another Fed study in this year's legislative effort to regulate stablecoins. House legislation is also said to maintain a role for state regulators and squeezes the ability to issue algorithmic stablecoins, though it is likely past the point at which it can become law this year.

EU Finalizes Legal Text for Landmark Crypto Regulations Under MiCA: The European Union has finalized the full text of its landmark Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation. A leaked draft of the text shows the rules could apply to algorithmic stablecoins and fractionalized NFTs.

The new potential law will require issuers of crypto assets to publish white papers containing technical roadmaps, for platforms to register with the authorities, require stablecoin issuers to hold capital and be prudently managed.

– Xinyi Luo

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Putting the news into perspective

The Takeaway

The Merge Doesn't Solve Ethereum's 'Atomic Composability'

The Merge of Ethereum's network is a significant accomplishment in the history of open-source software and Web3. For the most part, this transition from the more energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus mechanism to the less energy-intensive proof-of-stake has been celebrated for its increased sustainability.

But while the story of the day is about energy conservation, the Merge skirts a looming problem for Ethereum. Network updates after the Merge are intended to finally begin improving Ethereum's scalability – but these proposals threaten the viability and sustainability of a healthy Web3 ecosystem.

"Atomic composability," which made decentralized finance (DeFi) on Ethereum possible to begin with, becomes compromised. And when you break atomic composability, you hinder the very thing that makes an ecosystem truly sustainable long-term.

What is atomic composability and why does it matter?

Atomic composability is a technical term for saying that any application on a network can frictionlessly interact with any other application. Ethereum is going to consciously break composability by segregating parts of its network from each other in the implementation of sharding or layer 2 systems.

To make this concept more concrete, let's consider the health of a rainforest or a desert.

Without pollinators, one-third of all our edible fruits and vegetables could not grow, according to experts.

You've most likely heard about the declining bee population, but the story repeats itself over and over and over again all over the world. The destruction of agave plants for tequila production jeopardizes the survival of the bats that pollinate the most important cactus in the desert, putting the entire ecosystem at risk. Whaling ultimately leads to the destruction of fish stocks.

The fact is that biodiversity is essential for the survival and growth of natural ecosystems, and when this cycle is threatened the consequences are far-reaching and devastating.

(Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

As far back as 2009, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity organization put out a report highlighting just how much economic value for humans is directly connected to ecosystem biodiversity, including up to 50% of the pharmaceutical industry and 100% of the agricultural industry, among many others.

So if biodiversity is so important and valuable for physical ecosystems, why wouldn't application diversity be essential for the survival and growth of digital ecosystems?

The answer: It is.

The more application diversity within an ecosystem, the more its apps are able to "cross-pollinate" with each other, leading to a more robust, resilient ecosystem that can fuel all kinds of growth. This can also lead to new species of applications and new wealth creation for the humans who rely on them.

Protecting the 4 superpowers is the key to Web3 eco-diversity

Web3 has four superpowers: tokenization, decentralized applications, two-sided markets without intermediaries and composability.

Taking away one of these superpowers by walling off certain applications from each other through specific types of blockchain sharding or layer 2 implementations (as nearly every smart contract platform does) is like separating the bat from the plant it pollinates.

We're witnessing the impact on our world as we destroy natural diversity, separating flora and fauna from the ecosystems in which they have thrived and are interdependent.

Now, at the dawn of Web3, as we look to birth the most dynamic, flourishing digital ecosystem for the future of global finance, we can't afford to make that same mistake.

Decentralized networks that preserve all four superpowers, including atomic composability, will give emergent digital ecosystems the most room to flourish.

– Jeremy Epstein

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Whether you're a developer, entrepreneur, designer or blockchain enthusiast, the Tron Grand Hackathon is the perfect opportunity for you to grow the ecosystem and get your ideas seen by crypto experts, KOLs and the community.

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Overheard on CoinDesk TV...

Sound Bites

"There are now a million hotspots providing wireless coverage across the globe and that's caused us to rethink around the architecture and how this works."

– Nova Labs CEO Amir Haleem, discussing Helium's transition over to the Solana network, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover."

What others are writing

Off-Chain Signals

Korea Finds More 'Abnormal' FX Transactions via Crypto Exchanges (Bloomberg – paywalled)
FTX in talks to raise up to $1 billion at valuation of about $32 billion, in-line with prior round (CNBC)
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: Crypto Tokens, Bitcoin Are 'Decentralized Ponzi Schemes' (Decrypt)
Coinbase Tested Group to Speculate on Crypto (Wall Street Journal – paywalled)

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