Top crypto stories of week 37, 2024
Mon 9 to Sun 15 September 2024
The 20 top stories on Kiwi News from Mon 9 to Sun 15 September 2024, ranked by upvotes, comments and clicks, with 27 comments in total. Most-shared sources: x.com, app.t2.world.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- Zoning L2s: Scaling your Blockchain with Lessons from Urbanism [kiwi challenge] (app.t2.world)
The author argues that L2 scaling solutions should be designed like nuisance-based zoning, which is common in Japan, rather than like Euclidean single-use zoning. Nuisance-based zoning lets any use exist in a neighborhood as long as residents tolerate its nuisance, and the author suggests L2s should aim for generality up to a certain scale while L1s subsidize diversity and L2s subsidize specificity. Examples given include zkSync Lite as a Euclidean L2 and Gnosis Chain for its use of the xDAI stablecoin for fees, with Optimism and Arbitrum cited as nuisance-style L2s that have their own tokens.
- Kiwi received a mini-grant from ENS! (x.com)
- A Slow Unexpected Death for Mirror.xyz: Mirror Investment Memo (reddit.com)
- Passwords have problems, but passkeys have more (world.hey.com)
David Heinemeier Hansson writes that passkeys were not worth their complexity for ONCE/Campfire, so the team dropped them and is sticking with passwords and email. He says the team had built its early authentication system around passkeys, which was complicated on the backend, but the user experience was poor and the feature was ripped out. He argues passkeys tie accounts to a platform in ways users don't notice, so a passkey stored on an iPhone or Windows device can leave a user locked out on another device. He concedes passwords have problems, but says the planned approach is to encourage opt-in 2FA and password managers without requiring them.
- Questing into a New Experience Economy (app.t2.world)
The author argues that onchain questing should be designed around meaning and fun rather than click-farming, and that event designers need game design skills to do so. The essay says crypto has mostly built only the expansion step of a quest, collecting items, while neglecting exploration, rewards and progression. It cites FWB Fest '24's scavenger hunt, which placed IYK tags near walkable places where people would meet and required no payment or new app, as an example of a quest that worked. It also points to Soulmates by Amelia Guertin, a matchmaking quiz for crypto events, and to Chipped Social founder Winny's motto "Fun as a KPI."
- Lens vs Farcaster (dune.com)
- Interested.FYI (interested.fyi)
- Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC) is now live (coinbase.com)
- Animated Emoji (googlefonts.github.io)
- Magic Account: single balance to use across all of Ethereum (x.com)
- Danny Ryan steps back from Ethereum R&D (github.com)
Danny Ryan is taking an indefinite break from Ethereum L1 research and development after more than seven years on the effort. He says his departure is personal and not a reflection of Ethereum, core development, or crypto more broadly. Through the end of the year, he plans to focus on his family and a few small personal projects, and he is interested in part-time engagements as 2025 begins. He also says Ethereum R&D is in good hands, with depth of experience across dozens of teams.
- Goodbye Tinder, hello Strava: have hobby apps become the new social networks? (theguardian.com)
Hobby apps such as Strava, Goodreads and Letterboxd are drawing users away from social media and dating apps, according to this feature, which presents their gentler, interest-based communities as an alternative. Strava user numbers grew 20% in a year, per Sensor Tower, and Letterboxd grew from 1.8 million users in March 2020 to more than 14 million this summer. Goodreads has more than 150 million members. Match Group, which operates Tinder and Hinge, has seen its share price fall from above $175 in October 2021 to about $36, and it announced 6% job cuts in July. Dr Carolina Are of Northumbria University attributes the shift partly to disillusionment with algorithm-driven dating.
- Cult NFTs are Winning (bankless.com)
Community-driven "cult" NFT collections are outperforming corporate-style PFP projects, because decentralized holder participation fits crypto's principles better. Milady Maker, launched in August 2021 by Charlotte Fang and Remilia Collective, has a floor price of about 3.4 ETH against a 0.06 ETH mint price, despite controversy centered on Fang. Sproto Gremlins, launched last summer alongside the BITCOIN memecoin, are priced at 0.6 ETH, down from an all-time high of about 1.4 ETH, while Bored Ape Yacht Club and Azuki have seen significant price declines from their all-time highs.
- No one’s ready for this. (our basic assumptions of photos changing) (theverge.com)
The Verge's Sarah Jeong argues that the Pixel 9's Magic Editor makes convincing fake photos in under 10 seconds, and that this will flip the default assumption about photos from authentic to faked. The article says the Reimagine tool produced realistic images such as an explosion beside a brick building and a cockroach in takeout. It notes that Reimagine edits carry only a removable metadata line, while Google's SynthID watermark is applied to Pixel Studio outputs. Google communications manager Alex Moriconi said the company's guardrails and policies limit abusive content, but the article contends that standard content moderation will not preserve the photograph's value as evidence.
- We will Eat The Bear's Buttocks (app.t2.world)
The article argues that L2 rollups are not part of Ethereum and are not parasitic to it, since they choose their own settlement layer, while acknowledging that Ethereum's revenue and value accrual face pressure. It cites a 99% fall in Ethereum revenue after EIP-4844, with L2 fees dropping 80-90%, and says many L2s are moving to alternative data availability. The piece also warns of fragmentation across L2s, notes that only DeGate (TVL $25M) and Fuel V1 (TVL $600) are at Stage 2, and describes a possible future of aggregated chains and simplified user experience.
- "Pluralistic Future of L2s" writing contest deadline has been extended (x.com)
- Unlonely is pivoting (x.com)
Unlonely is abandoning its platform-building approach to focus on creating its own tokenized livestream content centered on one single token. The article says the team, including Grace, found that the platform was not differentiated enough, that the shows were what people recognized them for, and that they are better at making fun content. It states that 10 seasons of shows are in the pipeline, with the stated goal of pumping the token to a billion, and that 99% of the team's efforts will go into making shows while existing streamers can keep using the platform.
- Tyrany 101: Chrome introduces Digital IDs (simplifiedprivacy.com)
Google's Chrome team has rolled out a digital ID feature, announced on its blog, that the author calls a power grab to make Google the overseer of identification through its browser and mobile platform. The feature is launching first on mobile via Chrome. The post cites Chrome's stated use cases of age verification, identity verification with name and address for legal compliance or fraud prevention, and checking eligibility to drive, such as when renting a car. The author argues that a browser is a poor place to store such data from a security standpoint and urges readers to boycott Chrome.
- The Cultural Evolution of the Eth: From Cypherpunks to the Diverse L2 Universe (app.t2.world)
The article traces how Ethereum's culture evolved from cypherpunk individualism into a politically diverse ecosystem that hosts many Layer 2 networks. It describes Bitcoin Maximalists as typifying a cypherpunk fundamentalism focused on individual privacy and autonomy, while Ethereum is presented as extending that spirit toward social responsibility and public product effects. The text divides the ecosystem's cultures into regenerative (Regens) and degenerative (Degens) groups, with Degens including financial nihilists and speculative opportunists. It also says Ethereum should set standards and suppress excessive speculation, and it compares the relationship between Ethereum and Layer 2 networks to that of parents and children.
- Vitalik only to publicly mention L2s that are stage 1+, starting 2025 (x.com)
Vitalik Buterin says that starting next year he plans to publicly mention in blogs and talks only layer-2 (L2) rollups that are stage 1 or higher, with a possible short grace period for new projects he finds genuinely interesting. He says this applies regardless of whether he has invested in a project or is friends with its team. He notes that multiple ZK-rollup teams have told him they are on track to reach stage 1 by year end. He describes stage 1 as requiring a 75% council threshold to override the proof system, with at least 26% of council members outside the rollup team, and calls it a reasonable moderate milestone while stating that training wheels should not be removed until the proof systems are confident to be secure.