Shiba Inu enters the metaverse race
GM, we take the latest Web3 news and translate it into plain old English - so you can stay up to date, without your eyes glazing over.
In today’s edition:
The 19 millionth bitcoin was mined on Friday (here's why that's an important milestone)
Shiba Inu enters the metaverse race
RESOURCE: Why are (crypto) ‘gas’ fees going up?
Yikes. This stablecoin could collapse Bitcoin
The 19 millionth bitcoin was mined on Friday (here's why that's an important milestone)
It took 13 years for 19M (~90%) of all 21M Bitcoin to be mined. The last 10% could take another 20 years.
This is because every 4 years, the complexity of the mining increases and the rate at which new Bitcoins are added to the market slows by half.
Translation:
Bitcoin becomes harder to get over time -> which increases its value. Just check out the Bitcoin's reaction to previous halvings:
'Cool story, nerd' we hear you say.
Ok, first: ouch. Guess they're only feelings...
Second: This is important! Over the past 13 years Bitcoin has proven the concept that scarce digital assets can provide real financial utility.
It is the Roger Bannister of the crypto world (he was the first person to break the 4 minute mile).
Runners had been seriously attempting to break the record since 1886 - Roger did it in 1954.
That's 68 years of attempts.
Here's the crazy part:
Once Bannister proved it could be done, it took just 46 days before his record was matched (and beaten) by John Landy.
Bitcoin is doing for crypto, what ol' Rog did for running - paving the way for the rest of the Web3 space.
Shiba Inu enters the metaverse race
Most of us know Shiba Inu as the meme coin, created to poke fun at Dogecoin, that accidentally blew up in price late last year.
The price bump turned one person's $8K investment into $5.7 BILLION.
If you haven't heard of Shiba Inu, no this isn't an extended April Fools joke, but a very real, very strange reality.
After all of the hype, the team behind the project decided to do something with the trust buyers had put into the token and offer some real utility.
So far, they've added:
Staking (see translation)
NFTs (see translation)
An Artist Incubator (exactly what it sounds like)
And now they're adding to that list by creating their very own metaverse.
One where users can buy virtual land, gather in-game resources, and generate rewards (which the team said it will reveal soon).
Our take:
Does this sound like it will solve 'the boring problem' faced by most metaverses, by giving them something that is easy to access and enjoyable enough to return to regularly?
No, not really.
Could it?
Sure, yes, maybe.
Resource of the day
Why are ‘gas’ fees going up?
Not only for your car (~3mins)
Yikes. This stablecoin could collapse Bitcoin
The boring stuff:
Terra's UST stablecoin matches the value of the US dollar.
If it goes above 1 USD in price, they put more UST on the market, lowering its scarcity, and with it, its price.
If it goes below 1 USD in price, they buy up a bunch of UST, making it more scarce and more valuable.
The cool stuff:
Terra recently helped pump up the price of Bitcoin after they started buying it as a reserve asset.
(reserve asset = something they can sell to raise funds in case they need to buy up a bunch of UST).
The scary stuff:
If too many people sell UST at once, it could force Terra to sell a big chunk of their $10 billion dollar Bitcoin reserve.
This has the potential to be the biggest forced sale of Bitcoin in history, cratering its price as a result and creating similar ripple effects across the rest of the crypto market.
The calming stuff:
Murphy's Law can suck it. Just because it can happen, doesn't mean it will. These are all just potential scenarios.
Your Daily Dose of Web3
3rd largest ETH whale just bought 86 Billion Shiba Inu tokens
Ethereum founder praises ‘Bitcoin Maximalism’…on April Fools day
Alright, that’s it for today!
Love to all,