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  • 10/17/24: The Surge Is Coming 🌊🧠💰

10/17/24: The Surge Is Coming 🌊🧠💰

Top News

  1. Vitalik publishes part 2 of his Ethereum roadmap focused on “The Surge”

  2. A16z publishes State of Crypto 2024 research report

  3. Polymarket bettor Fredi9999 may have $26M bets on Trump

Specs’ Insights

1. Vitalik publishes part 2 of his Ethereum roadmap focused on “The Surge”

⌐◪-◪ → Guys, a new Vitalik just dropped! Our creator and supreme leader, Vitalik Buterin, just published a new blog post outlining key goals for phase 2 of the Ethereum roadmap, “The Surge.”

For context, we’re currently in phase 1 of 6, “The Merge,” which was focused on establishing a simple, robust, and decentralized proof-of-stake consensus. Now, "The Surge" is all about scaling that foundation to hit 100,000+ transactions per second on L1 and L2.

His post reignited the L1 vs L2 debate, highlighting risks if L2s become too successful and L1 remains with low TPS, including:

  • Little value accrual back to the L1

  • The L1 weakening, incentivizing L2s to go independent

  • L2s having weaker security assurances than Ethereum

Vitalik emphasizes hitting 100k TPS while ensuring decentralization and security of the L1, encouraging L2s to embrace ETH’s core values (trustless, open, censorship-resistant) and pushing for maximum L2 interoperability. The key takeaway: we want Ethereum to feel like one big ecosystem.

To me, the future is rollup-centric — L1 alone won’t scale for DeFi and global commerce. But the challenge is balancing L2 expansion without compromising L1 security.

2. A16z publishes State of Crypto 2024 research report

⌐◪-◪ → I just got smarter. A16z just dropped their State of Crypto 2024 report and it’s full of juicy insights. I highly recommend setting aside 30 minutes to read it — and then read it again.

Not only is it great brain food for crypto investors, builders, and creators, but it’s also S-tier ammunition for redpilling your family at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

One of my favorite takeaways: stablecoins did $8.5T in transactions volume last quarter, which is over 2x Visa’s $3.9T — and that’s just stablecoins!

I won’t spoil the rest of the report. Do yourself a favor and give it a read, then hop in Specs.Chat to discuss. The hive mind feeds on your support.

3. Polymarket bettor Fredi9999 may have $26M bets on Trump

⌐◪-◪ → Data suggests Polymarket whale Fredi9999 may be betting operating from multiple accounts, betting as much as $26M on Trump

The various accounts all exhibit nearly identical trading patterns and share similar funding sources, with deposits coming from Kraken in $500k or $1M chunks.

If true (and I think it is), my first question is: why operate from multiple accounts? What are they trying to hide? What is their motive?

Crypto Twitter, naturally, has theories. Some I’ve seen:

  • Skew odds in favor of Trump for the "stolen election" narrative

  • Create an "underdog" appearance for Kamala to boost voter turnout

  • Kamala-dependent business hedging against a Trump win

  • An insider betting on some bombshell case against Harris/Walz

  • Or just a billionaire (cough, Elon Musk) betting for fun

While there’s no telling what Fredi and Friend’s true motive is, these accounts probably are the same entity/individual. Furthermore, while $26M might sound like a lot, it’s chump change for somebody rich/powerful to get what they want.

Meanwhile, Polymarket is now the #1 news app, flipping the New York Times.

Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Kraken launches wrapped Bitcoin token called kBTC

  • Crypto usage sets records amid regulatory uncertainty: A16z

  • Stripe in talks to acquire stablecoin-focused fintech firm

  • Radiant Capital suffers $51M exploit on BNB Chain and Arbitrum

  • PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin market cap down 40% from August peak

  • Dogecoin prices rise 10% amid Elon government efficiency department

  • TON blockchain taps Axelar for interoperability push

  • Fuel Labs debuts 'Ignition' rollup network with focus on parallelization

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

  • Nishad Singh lawyers ask judge to spare him the prison time

  • Coinbase accuses SEC of 'erroneous denials' in FOIA request

  • Bitfinex hacker deserves 5-year sentence for laundering $8B, DOJ says

  • Forcount promoter sentenced to 20 years in crypto Ponzi scheme case

  • Jump Trading accused of pump and dump by game developer

🌎 Rest Of The World

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

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