The meme coin phenomenon, where communities produce tokens with no other support than a meme behind it, has given rise to opposing opinions. These range from the most positive ones, which regard them as value-affirming elements, to the negative ones, which state that there is no value behind them. Bitcoin.com News examines the views of […]
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A mix of highly influential and controversial characters make up the latest list of the 10 most popular crypto entrepreneurs based on their social media presence, with Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao leading the pack in first place and convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried trailing in 10th.
The top 10 list was compiled by CoinLedger after shortlisting CryptoWeekly’s 30 most influential people in cryptocurrency in 2023, combined with their respective social media followings to determine the most widely followed crypto personality worldwide.
Sitting at the cool kids’ table with CZ are Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Twitter co-founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey, occupying the top three spots, in that order. In CoinLedger’s study, CZ emerged as the most popular personality in cryptocurrency, with nearly 9.1 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram combined.
Buterin and Dorsey followed CZ with combined Twitter and Instagram followers of 7.7 million and 6.4 million, respectively.
MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor and ARK Invest founder and CEO Cathie Wood sit in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Saylor has around half of Dorsey’s following at nearly 3.25 million, while Wood has just over 1.6 million followers.
Venture capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya and Marc Andreessen reached the sixth and seventh places, with 1.6 million and 1.3 million followers, respectively. Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong nabbed the next two spots with 1.25 million and 1.2 million followers.
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The 10th spot on the list was bagged by Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the defunct crypto exchange FTX. SBF still has a following of 1.06 million across X and Instagram, a year after the FTX collapse.
During the FTX implosion, SBF’s overall followers increased from roughly 780,000 to over 1.1 million and have settled at the one million mark ever since, according to Socialblade data.
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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also raised concern regarding the concentration of Ethereum’s liquid staking providers.
In his recent blog post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his opinion on adding some protocols to the Ethereum blockchain code. He also touched upon the most important part which is the concentration of liquid staking service providers.
Vitalik Buterin discussed several Ethereum protocols, including the account abstraction protocol ERC-4337, ZK-EVMs, private mempools, code precompiles, and liquid staking. He expressed stronger support for “enshrining” some of these protocols, such as ERC-4337, in Ethereum’s code, while he had reservations about others like private mempools. However, he acknowledged that each protocol presents a complex tradeoff that will continue to evolve over time.
Buterin also raised concerns about the concentration of Ethereum’s liquid staking providers. Notably, Lido currently controls over 32% of staked ether, albeit across different validators. Buterin highlighted that both Lido and Rocket Pool, two major providers, carry different risks and have some safety measures in place, though these might not be sufficient.
Rather than relying solely on “moralistic pressure” to promote a more diverse set of staking providers, Buterin contemplated potential protocol changes aimed at further decentralizing liquid staking. These changes could involve adjusting RocketPool’s approach or granting additional governance powers to a randomly selected committee of small stakers.
In the last 24 hours, the Ethereum (ETH) price has gained more than 3.5% shooting all the way to the $1,750 level. The price move comes ahead of the launch of Ethereum futures ETFs and $1,750 serves as a key resistance level for Ethereum.
Ethereum faces major resistance at $1,800, and a successful breakthrough could pave the way for further gains toward $1,850 and $1,920, potentially even reaching $2,000. On the downside, if Ethereum fails to surpass the $1,750 resistance, it may initiate a corrective move.
Initial support lies around the $1,710 level, with a more critical support at $1,680. Additionally, the 76.4% Fibonacci retracement level from the recent rally, positioned near $1,685, offers support. A breach below $1,685 might test the $1,650 support, potentially triggering a bearish trend towards the $1,600 level.
As per the schedule and plans, the Ethereum futures ETF from Bitwise is likely to go live later today, October 2. As of a September 27 note, there are 15 Ether futures ETFs from nine different issuers awaiting approval. These issuers include well-known names like VanEck, ProShares, Grayscale, Volatility Shares, Bitwise, Direxion, and Roundhill.
The analysts assessing the situation have assigned a 90% likelihood of Ether futures ETFs launching in October. Among these offerings, Valkyrie’s Bitcoin futures product, with Bitcoin trading at approximately $28,308, is expected to be the first to include exposure to Ether starting on October 3.
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Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.
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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes the Bitcoin network needs scalable solutions like zero-knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups) to become more than another payment network. Buterin’s comments came during a Twitter Space hosted by Bitcoin developer Udi Wertheimer, with discussions revolving around Ethereum’s scaling experiments.
A ZK-rollup is an off-chain protocol that operates on top of the Ethereum blockchain and is managed by on-chain Ethereum smart contracts. It offers a more scalable and faster way to verify transactions without sharing critical user information.
The Ethereum co-founder shed light on how Ethereum has incorporated various scaling solutions over the years to increase throughput. Buterin cited Optimism and Arbitrum as two successful examples of rollups that could be considered case studies for Bitcoin, adding:
“I think if we want Bitcoin to be more than payments, it needs more scaling solutions”
Scalability has been a long-drawn point of discussion for Bitcoin and Ethereum over the years. While the Ethereum network has shifted from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake network, it is also experimenting with various layer-2 solutions like ZK-rollups and Plasma.
Related: Zero-knowledge proofs coming to Bitcoin, overhauling network state validation
On the other hand, Bitcoin’s layer-2 solution, the Lightning Network, has been crucial to its scalability, and lately, Bitcoin Ordinals have helped the Bitcoin network become more than just another payment layer. Buterin lauded the rise of Ordinals and said he thinks they have brought back the builder culture into the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Bitcoin Ordinals are the latest layer-2 solution enabling decentralized storage of digital art on the Bitcoin blockchain. Its popularity soared fast, and by the end of June, Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions hit over $210 million in trading volume.
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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum network needs to go through three major technical transitions related to Layer-2 scaling, wallet security, and privacy as it matures from a “young experimental technology into a mature tech stack.”
Buterin added that these transitions must be executed “roughly simultaneously” to ensure success and if any of them fall short, then the network will likely fail due to certain fundamental issues that will arise as a consequence.
He made the statement in a June 9 blog post that revealed a new roadmap for the Layer-1 blockchain network, where he also discussed the critical issues plaguing Ethereum’s future that need to be addressed.
Buterin said:
“It’s not just features of the protocol that need to improve; in some cases, the way that we interact with Ethereum needs to change pretty fundamentally, requiring deep changes from applications and wallets.”
According to Buterin, Layer-2 rollups solve a critical issue plaguing the Ethereum network — high gas fees. If users don’t adopt rollups en masse, then gas fees will remain absurdly high, with a single transaction potentially costing more than $80 during a bull run.
Even in the current crypto winter — considered by many to be the harshest in history — gas fees for Ethereum transactions are usually around $3. Buterin believes this is unsustainable and Layer-2 adoption is the only way to solve it.
Failure to do so will ultimately result in users turning to “centralized workarounds” that will be more intuitive and cheaper to use.
Buterin believes that crypto wallets are not up to par currently when it comes to user experience and security, which is a critical issue for the growth of the network.
According to Buterin, if wallet security is not improved, then users will never feel comfortable with the self-custody of assets and will prefer to turn to centralized options like exchanges.
He also said that the interoperability of wallets and networks is important as it enables a more seamless experience for users when it comes to using cryptocurrency in day-to-day transactions like buying groceries.
Buterin said:
“I have coins on Scroll, and I want to pay for coffee. You are selling me the coffee, but you are only set up to receive coins on Taiko. Wat do?”
He suggested the concept of a “receiving wallet” as one way to solve this conundrum. Such a wallet would support the vast majority of Layer-2 networks and would be able to consolidate funds asynchronously.
Another option would be to develop cross-L2 bridging system so senders’ wallets are able to automatically send funds to the right destination.
Another key issue that threatens Ethereum’s success in becoming the go-to network for the average user is the lack of privacy when it comes to individual transactions.
Buterin believes that people would loathe using crypto in their daily lives if there is a public record of their transactions that is easily traceable to them.
He made several suggestions around using stealth addresses but admitted that issues around privacy remain a major problem with no easy solution in sight.