Evening News | V God: Ethereum 2.0 may merge as early as August; Moutai suspends its digital collectibles activities due to the detection of a large number of "fake accounts."

Organizer: Hsilung, Chain Catcher

"What important events have occurred in the past 24 hours?"

1. Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0 merge could happen as early as August, plans to launch 'Danksharding' scalability plan

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated at the Ethereum Shanghai Web3 Developer Summit that Ethereum 2.0 is currently undergoing final network testing. If all issues are resolved, "The Merge" could happen as early as August, but if there are other complications, it may take place in September or October.

Additionally, Vitalik Buterin mentioned that the Ethereum team has proposed a scalability plan called "Danksharding," which aims to expand Ethereum's block capacity to 80,000 TPS in the long term, with Rollups ultimately reaching 80,000 TPS/second. The first phase will complete Proto-danksharding, supporting a block capacity of 1MB and 5,000 TPS. (Source link)

2. Optimism launches new decentralized Rollup infrastructure Bedrock

Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism announced the launch of the decentralized Rollup infrastructure Bedrock, which reuses Ethereum's code, infrastructure, and design patterns as much as possible. They stated that "EVM equivalent" is a thing of the past, and Bedrock brings "Ethereum equivalent." Furthermore, Optimism indicated that Bedrock will serve as the infrastructure for the interactive proof-of-failure system Cannon, with advantages including reduced transaction fees, increased maximum throughput, and improved node synchronization speed. (Source link)

3. Moutai suspends "Moutai in the Solar Terms" digital collectibles activity: due to large number of "virtual accounts" using bots to participate in the lottery

Moutai International officially announced that since the launch of the "Moutai in the Solar Terms" series of activities, attention has rapidly increased, with actual participation exceeding 400,000. It is reported that the collaborating platform "Top Collectibles" discovered a large influx of "virtual accounts," and there were instances of using bots to participate in the lottery in bulk, infringing on the rights of normal users and contradicting the original intention of the event. In response, the company and the "Top Collectibles" platform decided to suspend the "Moutai in the Solar Terms" series of activities.

Previous report, Guizhou Moutai will release the "Moutai in the Solar Terms" series of digital collectibles. (Source link)

4. Tether's Q1 audit report: total assets exceed liabilities, commercial paper holdings decreased by 17% quarter-on-quarter

Tether's quarterly audit opinion shows that its commercial paper holdings decreased by 17% compared to the previous quarter, from $24.2 billion to $19.9 billion, continuing to decrease by 20% since April 1, 2022, which will be reflected in the Q2 2022 report.

The report was completed by accounting firm MHA Cayman and noted that as of March 31, 2022, Tether's total consolidated assets were at least over $82.4 billion, specifically $82,424,821,101, with total assets exceeding total liabilities. Additionally, Tether increased its investments in money market funds and U.S. Treasury securities, rising from $34.5 billion to $39.2 billion, an increase of over 13%. (Source link)

5. NFT project UnicornDAO completes $4.5 million financing, with investments from MoonPay and Yuga Labs

NFT project UnicornDAO announced the completion of $4.5 million in financing, with participation from World of Women and Moonbirds NFT series, MoonPay, Polygon, and Yuga Labs.

It is understood that the project is led by Nadya Tolokonnikova, a founding member of the Russian art group Pussy Riot, aiming to empower female and LGBTQ NFT creators. This round of financing will be used to advance the work of the DAO, with initial investors receiving board seats. (Source link)

6. Blockchain solution provider Saga completes $6.5 million seed round financing, with participation from Polygon Studios

Blockchain solution provider Saga completed a $6.5 million seed round financing at a valuation of $130 million, with investors including Maven 11, Longhash Ventures, Hypersphere, Figment, Polygon Studios, Samsung NEXT, Chorus One, GSR, C2X, CRIT Ventures, Akash Network, Unanimous Capital, Strangelove Ventures, Tess Ventures, Merit Circle, Hustle Fund, and Polymer, with individual investors including Zaki Manian, Jae Kwon, Garrette Furo, Alex Shin, and Nick Tomaino.

It is reported that Saga provides blockchain solutions for game and entertainment developers and plans to launch its mainnet and token early next year. (Source link)

"What excellent articles are worth reading in the past 24 hours?"

1. "The First Principle of Web3 Design: Building a Transformative World, Not Just Tools"

After the collapse of internet companies in the early 21st century, many questioned the necessity of all the bandwidth built in previous years. What is the point of making email a little faster? In the mid-2000s, due to this innovation, applications like YouTube became possible, opening a new era for internet entrepreneurs. Crypto is in the process of finding its purpose, and blockchain may be in a similar position; breakthroughs are imminent for those willing to play the long game.

2. "Searching for the Soul of Web3: Planning a Future Built on Trust"

The economic value that financial transactions rely on is generated by people and their relationships. Due to the lack of primitives representing this social identity in Web3, it has fundamentally relied on the very centralized Web2 structures it seeks to transcend, thus replicating Web2's limitations. Learning how to plan a future based on trust (rather than replacing trust) seems to be a necessary lesson for humanity to survive on this planet.

3. "Google's Roadmap for Web3: A Struggle Between Centralization and Decentralization"

According to CNBC, the Web3 team formed by Google will provide backend services for blockchain developers, focusing on the infrastructure of the Web3 world. Lory Kehoe, co-founder of Ireland and part-time associate professor at Trinity College Dublin, stated, "If Google develops easier-to-use services that fill market gaps, then even if those services do not reach the level of decentralization, people will go there. That is Google's power."