👨‍💻The long-awaited Ethereum merge and how it affects you

What up, family, 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦,

Seedphrase Daily here 👋. We do our best to provide you with relevant information on Web3 and NFTs so you can sit back and relax.

Today’s estimated research time is 5 hours and 5 minutes condensed into a read time of 3 minutes and 46 seconds. Stay tuned to where we talk about:

• 👨‍💻 Does the new Ethereum merge mean it’s a good or bad time to invest?

• 🤯 BTCs overwhelming energy consumption.

• 👾 Mark Zuckerberg announces new game connected to Meta!

• 📝 SeedPhrase Dictation

Does the new Ethereum merge mean it’s a good or bad time to invest? 👨‍💻

Ethereum's JUST completed its test merge, leaving people wondering about the state of the market.

The experts at SeedPhrase see the test boosting Ethereum's price in the short term. The test is crucial before Ethereum's actual transition to proof-of-stake later this summer, which will address concerns about its environmental impact and dramatically improve its transaction speed.

Ethereum is taking a significant step toward having less of a carbon blueprint which will help the network thrive in the long term. The massive energy consumption is one of the major reasons people or even governments refuse to adopt cryptocurrencies.

For example, in 2021, we saw Tesla purchase $1.5B worth of Bitcoin. The company then received backlash for supporting a cryptocurrency that didn't align with Tesla's values.

What does this mean for investors like us?

We've all heard the saying, 'Ethereum to $10,000' or 'Ethereum will replace Bitcoin'. And we could very well see that in the future, but maybe not anytime soon. ☹️

The merge shouldn't affect your long-term investment strategy because it will take some time for everything to get funnelled, and we get to mass adoption. Other factors such as regulations or bans could affect the price of all cryptos. So the best thing to do during this time is to strengthen your knowledge, keep assessing your risk management and dive deeper into the blockchain. 👨‍🏭

Time's Article

BTCs overwhelming energy consumption 🤯

Cryptocurrency mining takes up a large amount of energy. Mining farms sometimes consist of thousands of servers stacked in warehouses. They deploy raw computing power to solve complex math problems, consuming more electricity each year than in certain countries!

The continuous block mining cycle incentivizes people worldwide to mine Bitcoin. As mining can provide a solid stream of revenue, people are very willing to run power-hungry machines to get a piece of it. However, Bitcoin's biggest problem is not its massive energy consumption but the fact that fossil fuels power most mining facilities in Bitcoin's network.

What's this mean in the long run? 🤔

The network decreased from 41.6% to 25.1% following the mining crackdown in China in the Spring of 2021. This forced people to relocate and run their mining in the U.S and/or Kazakhstan.

These locations now mainly supply Bitcoin miners with either coal- or gas-based electricity, which has also boosted the carbon intensity of the electricity used for Bitcoin mining. The Bitcoin network has increased from 478.27 gCO2/kWh on average in 2020 to 557.76 gCO2/kWh in August 2021. The carbon footprint provided by the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index is based on this carbon intensity. Wow, a lot of big words…😅

Bitcoin energy consumption

From the chart above, coal is the primary fossil fuel source used to power Bitcoin mining. In the latter case, Bitcoin miners have historically used fossil fuel-based power because it is generally a more steady source of energy.

More information

Alternatives to PoW?

Proof-of-work was the first consensus algorithm that managed to prove itself, but it isn't the only consensus algorithm. More energy-efficient algorithms, like proof-of-stake, have been developed over recent years. In proof-of-stake, coin owners create blocks rather than miners, thus not requiring power-hungry machines that produce as many hashes per second as possible. Because of this, the energy consumption of proof-of-stake is negligible compared to proof-of-work. Bitcoin could potentially switch to such a consensus algorithm, significantly improving environmental sustainability. It is estimated that a switch to proof-of-stake could save 99.95% of the energy currently required to run a proof-of-work-based system.

However, will Bitcoin ever make a transition into Proof of Stake?

Mark Zuckerberg announces new game connected to Meta! 👾

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg today showcased Crayta, the latest addition to Meta's arsenal of gaming ventures within the metaverse. This game design, sharing, and playing platform is coming to Facebook Gaming. Zuckerberg also announced that Meta is expanding the Facebook Gaming catalogue of cloud games to Western Europe.

Mark Zuckerberg states in a video, "A lot of times today, people think about the metaverse as 3D experiences you can have in virtual and augmented reality, but I think what Crayta shows is that you can both build and enjoy these kinds of experiences really easily on all kinds of 2D environments including just within the Facebook App on phones and on computers."

Check out the video here! 

Looks pretty cool. Are you going to play? 🎮

WHALE ALERT! 🐳

A few days ago we talked about We Are All Going To Die here.

Well, this user has 83 NFTs apart of this collection with an estimated value of roughly 110Ξ ($200k). Take a guess when he bought in?

SeedPhrase Dictation 📝

If some words sound foreign to you, here are the definitions of words you might see while reading our newsletter and will help you become a Crypto expert! ✍️

HODL - Hold On Dear Life

DCA - Dollar Cost Averaging

NFT - Non-Fungible Token

ATH - All-Time High

PoW - Proof of Work

PoS - Proof of Stake

PoA - Proof of Authority

Altcoins

"altcoin" is shorthand for "alternative coins" and simply means cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. Some popular altcoins are Ethereum, XRP, and Cardano.

Fiat

No, not the car.

All kinds of money are made legal tender by government fiat. Fiat money is just the currency we use daily, such as USD, INR, AUD etc.

Gas fees

When you make a transaction on the blockchain, you have to pay a gas price fee. You are paying a miner to go out and receive crypto for you. You can choose to pay higher costs for faster transactions or lower fees for regular speed.

Whales

A whale is a term used for the most valuable Bitcoin addresses. There are about 2000 Bitcoin whale addresses, and only three own more than 100,000 BTC.

Smart Contracts

They are programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. They are used to automate the execution of an agreement so that all participants can be immediately sure of the outcome without any intermediary's involvement.

NewSeeds:

Lil articles for ya!

Mount Westmore: Snoop Dogg & Ice Cube release album that you can only buy as NFTs. innovators still! 📠

ApeFest ‘22 tickets are officially live. Who’s going? 🎟

PixelMax is building a childrens hospital in the Metaverse. Just heal bro 🙄

That’s a wrap! Do you think the new Ethereum update will make any significant changes to the price? Maybe this is what we need. Tweet us your favorite nuggest from today, and follow our Twitter for more up-to-date content! And If you’re looking to find early opportunities to make money, tune in daily! It only takes 5 minutes.

See you tomorrow for our last email of the week! ✌️ 💎

Meme of the Day

10/10 rizz

Disclaimer

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research!