Ethereum emerged in 2017 as a true contender to Bitcoin, but it’s a bit different. Ethereum hopes to power decentralized applications.
Exodus is one of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets, and for good reason. It’s user-friendly, accessible, free, and supports a wide breadth of crypto assets. If you’re a beginner with cryptocurrency, it makes sense that it would be at the top of your list. With that in mind, here’s how to get started using the Exodus wallet if you need a little more help.
Read moreExodus basics: A complete look at how to use the cryptocurrency wallet
Ethereum Foundation members are calling for participants to upgrade nodes as the Muir Glacier hard fork looms. This update was particularly controversial, releasing on what some consider to be a “global holiday,” the first day of the new year. Muir Glacier only contains one EIP which postpones the ‘Difficulty Bomb’ which slows down potential hash rates.
Read moreMuir Glacier hard fork activates on Ethereum’s mainnet in 3 days
Today, Udi Wertheimer pointed out that the Founder of Etherum, Vitalik Buterin sent 90,000 Eth to his ENS address which is not anonymous and public for the world to see. Granted, Wertheimer is a “Bitcoiner” who is often critical of Ethereum, he makes an objectively good point.
Read moreThe downside of simplifying blockchain addresses with ENS
This week, an e-mail from James Hancock, Hard Fork Coordinator at the Ethereum Foundation was leaked on Twitter and haters had a heyday. Criticism comes from the idea that decentralized networks shouldn’t operate like a corporation that has established roles. Hancock said that he had never had an e-mail leaked before and he doesn’t know how to feel about it.
EtH iS DeCENtRALIZEDD… pic.twitter.com/MyO8zmHwzV
— Psychedelic El ₿arto (@PsychedelicBart) December 23, 2019
“Never had an email ive sent leaked before. Not sure how I feel about this. - People mad I when they don’t know because no one reached out. - People mad when I reach out to let people know. Dang. I admit I could have worded it better. I went for brevity.” - Hancock
The timing of this leak occurred shortly after some Ethereum community members were upset about a non-urgent hard fork taking place on the “universal holiday” that is January 1st.
I am trying hard not to be negative about Ethereum lately…
But who the fuck decided to do a hard fork on a day that is an almost universal holiday?
Picking cool days is great when you are a core dev, but now someone from my team has to work on a day that they were free. https://t.co/xZmCPj5Y5r
— Jorge Izquierdo ? (@izqui9) December 23, 2019
People who keep up with Ethereum’s governance wouldn’t be surprised that there is a coordinator for hard fork. There is even an organization called “Ethereum Cat Herders,” who aim to “bring the minimum amount of order that chaos needs to move Ethereum forward” by working with the Ethereum foundation, and ether nodes / miners to push updates out smoothly.”
That being said, Ethereum governance is not very democratic, like many other coins. There is a huge amount of participation in the Ethereum ecosystem required to have a voice in the process. General holders of ether are not able to vote for who takes these positions in the Ethereum Foundation and while people know about Hancock and the foundation, there is nowhere other than that e-mail officially stating that he is the “Hard Fork Coordinator.”
If governance was operated completely by ether holders and miners, then there would be a risk of forming a plutocracy, or government controlled by the wealthy. Ethereum core devs seem to prefer a system where heavy participants talk to each other and decide things, leaving improvements in capable hands and allowing holders to not worry about anything.
A few days ago, Paul Razvan Berg, Founder of Sablier tweeted that he was one of the first people to ever receive an under-collateralized DeFi loan. Because of identity being difficult to prove within a mostly anonymous blockchain network, it has been too risky to borrow tokens without an over-collateralized position. Sablier allows users to prove their income stream, bringing DeFi one step closer to the ability to be under-collateralized.
Aaaand it's happened!
I'm one of the first people ever to receive an under-collateralised loan on Etheruem.
I convinced @pet3rpan_ to lend me 200 DAI by proving him that I'm being paid in real-time on @SablierHQ. See stream with id 20 below.https://t.co/2Ug4962sd6 https://t.co/JE98xrRcvq
— Paul, Streamer of Money (@PaulRBerg) December 17, 2019
Berg didn’t get his loan from a protocol or organization, instead, he asked people that he knew on Twitter. Essentially, Berg took a picture of his face next to his income stream on Sablier and was able to convince Peter Yuan Pan of Meta Cartel to give him a $200 loan that would be paid back by March 11th.
He enquired simply,
“@AlexMasmej @pet3rpan_ now that you can see the money being streamed to me and you know that @SablierHQ is a reputable org that doesn’t fire its founders, would you lend me 10% of the stream’s worth? I’ll pay it back when I get all of the locked up money, that is, on March 11.”
This wasn’t one of Sablier’s intended use cases, according to their introduction blog post. They mostly are aiming to allow continuous income streams in a decentralized manner. Basically, an employer creates a contract with their employee that says “pay Bob $1000 by December 31st,” then the money will continuously be deposited into the Bob’s Sablier contract.
Determining credit scores through income or bank account balance isn’t a new idea though. As countries discusses creating a centrally backed digital currency, a talking point has been to use information that new digital information to create more immersive credit rating.
With Sablier, people can prove that they are getting paid, but there is still (to my knowledge) no mass under-collateralized lending protocol linked to a zero-proof knowledge credit core system. The only incentive that Berg really has to pay his under-collateralized DeFi loan back is that it is public, and bailing would affect his reputation.