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The Ethereum 2.0 upgrade is still on track to go live in July. The new upgrade will see Ethereum transition to a hybrid consensus system formed of a mix between its current proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm and a new proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithm. It will also introduce much-needed efficiency improvements, potentially helping Ethereum overcome its rampant bloat issues.

Ethereum 2.0 or ETH2 or Serenity is the evolution of Ethereum network into the next phase for the performance improvement of Ethereum. The main aspect in this upgrade is the shift of Ethereum's consensus algorithm from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake ( PoS). This will result in the improvement of security, usability and scalability of the ethereum network as a whole. The upgrade will be live in multiple phases, starting with Phase 0 in this year of 2020.

In the 24 hours following the August 11 launch, the total-value-locked (TVL) into the Yam Finance system peaked at around $600 million. However, soon after that, the developers found a bug in the smart contract code that would have minted too much reserve instead of rebalancing supply. A Yam proposal called for locking up 160,000 YAM in a smart contract to save the network, one that would have rewarded farmers and benefactors with more YAM if the target was met; which it was. But the network then discovered a further flaw: the smart contract would still not work as intended, regardless of the 160,000 YAM locked up earlier. While no assets staked in Yam were lost, Yam's market capitalization dropped to zero as the price crashed and holders withdrew.

DeFi meme coin YAM has succumbed to a bug within its rebase function, meaning the coin has lost control of its on-chain governance feature. Yam was an elastic supply crypto-asset, where the supply expands and contracts in response to market conditions with the aim of pegging the value of a Yam to the U.S. dollar. 10% of each supply expansion ("rebase") is used to buy yCRV, a high-yielding basket of USD stablecoins, which is allocated to the Yam treasury which is controlled via community governance. Holders of any of eight eligible tokens, which included Compound and Maker, could stake them into Yam's front-end and start earning YAM.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has dismissed concerns that a 51% attack on Ethereum 2.0 would be 'fatal'. The scenario emerged as a result of the burgeoning popularity of Yearn.finance's yETH vault which has already amassed more than 137,000 ETH on its first day. Arcane Assets' Chief Intelligence Officer Eric Wall suggested this mean the yETH vault admins will probably end up controlling enough Ether to theoretically launch an attack on Ethereum 2.0, a Proof-of-Stake network. But Buterin asserts that the malicious actor "could attack once", but would be quickly slashed or soft-forked and lose control over the coins needed to maintain the attack.

Cryptocurrency investors face a tricky and fast-changing tax landscape worldwide with sparse guidance in many areas, according to a new report from PwC. The report also contains the new PwC Crypto Tax Index, which ranks jurisdictions based on how comprehensive their guidance is for holders. Liechtenstein came out on top this year, with Malta, Australia, Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong rounding out the highest rankings. Still, very few jurisdictions have issued guidance on topics like crypto borrowing and lending, DeFi, non-fungible tokens, tokenized assets and staking income. https://www.pwchk.com/en/research-and-insights/fintech/pwc-annual-global-crypto-tax-report-2020.pdf

Deutsche Telekom (DT) has teamed up with Andreessen Horowitz (AH) in a new deal that will see the firms stake Celo tokens and create a new blockchain-powered mobile payments network. They are "building a global payment platform that can be used by anyone with a mobile phone.

Quicknode announce support for Celo, a mobile-first, EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatible blockchain with 5-second block times and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) governance.

U.S. federal bank regulatory agencies issued a statement summarizing their interagency crypto-asset "policy sprints" and providing a roadmap of future work related to crypto-assets. It summarizes the agencies' plan to provide greater clarity throughout 2022 on whether certain crypto-related activities conducted by banking organizations are legally permissible, and related expectations for safety and soundness, consumer protection, and compliance with existing law and regulations. The focus includes crypto-asset safekeeping and traditional custody services, ancillary custody services including staking, facilitating crypto-asset lending and distributed ledger technology governance services, facilitation of customer purchases and sales of crypto-assets, loans collateralized by crypto-assets, issuance and distribution of stablecoins, and activities involving the holding of crypto-assets on balance sheet.

"CELO, the token of Celo, a proof-of-stake layer 1 blockchain, jumped in cryptocurrency markets on Monday as officials announced a new $20 million incentive campaign at the start of the Celo Connect conference this week in Barcelona, Spain."

By allowing ownership rights to be digitally represented, asset tokenization enables fractional ownership and allows for assets such as real estate, a work of art and a vintage car, to be divided into tokens representing smaller ownership stakes. This unlocks access to illiquid assets, allows more people to participate in investments previously limited to those with high net worth and lowers thus the barrier to entry. Tokenization can also greatly reduce the time and resources required to buy and sell assets. By using blockchain technology and smart contracts, this technology cuts down on paperwork and processing time, eliminates the need for many traditional intermediaries, and decreases operating costs due to disintermediation.

IMF published a working paper on crypto-asset taxation. The greatest challenges are for implementation: crypto's quasi-anonymity is an inherent obstacle to third-party reporting. Design problems arise from crypto' dual nature as investment assets and means of payment: more straightforward is a compelling case for corrective taxation of carbon-intensive mining. Ownership is highly concentrated at the top, but many crypto investors have only moderate incomes. The capital gains tax revenue at stake worldwide may be in the tens of billions of dollars, but the more profound risks may ultimately be for VAT/sales taxes.

A recent Economist article goes through the most likely path towards zero crypto - basically ending at the point where no one is using it. It rejects the attack-and-shut-down the major crypto-assets because that would essentially involve gaining 51% control of the computational power or value of tokens staked to verify transactions, which would be extraordinarily expensive, even at today's depressed prices. The more likely scenario, according to the article, is the collapse and generally a massive loss in faith in the exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocols. This could lead to further collapses of crypto prices, making 51% attacks more feasible, triggering a self-reinforcing crash as confidence in the protocols tanks.

"The stakes for redesigning access to money are high. As such, many exciting areas remain for future research, including socio-technical and user research; systems design, security and privacy; and research on the economics of CBDC compared to existing solutions. In exploring these topics, we must always ask ourselves whether new financial technologies increase the self-determination and agency of the poor and vulnerable. In order to achieve a public interest benefit from money technologies, we must achieve inclusion as well as other dimensions of the public good." (This is a summary of the recent MIT survey-based paper on CBDC and financial inclusion.)

Ether (ETH) rose to a two-month high, outperforming bitcoin after Ethereum ran the final dress rehearsal of Ether's switch to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus from the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus. This brings the Ethereum mainnet one step closer to the "merge" upgrade expected to take place on September 19. The merge will combine Ethereum's current PoW chain with the PoS Beacon chain.

This report details the recent experience in three states: Wyoming, Colorado and New Hampshire. While the details differ, the result is largely the same: The states have effectively delegated the task of regulating the crypto sector to those with the greatest financial stake in its success, with little regard for those who may stand to lose.

After years of waiting, debating, and delays, Ethereum's pending merge to proof-of-stake finally has a launch date. Now, Ethereums's miners are finally going to have to answer a multi-billion dollar question: what will they mine when Ethereum 2.0 launches?

Ethereum is scheduled to merge to Proof of Stake (PoS)1 on September 15, 2022, and as expected, this has caused speculation around the emergence of a Proof of Work (POW)2 Ethereum (ETHW) fork. While there is precedent for an Ethereum fork3, this note from Grayscale explores why it may not be viable this time around and what it could mean for both Ethereal (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC).

The Bellatrix upgrade preparing Ethereum for the Merge was successfully completed on September 6, 2022. This upgrade brought Ethereum's consensus layer, the Beacon Chain, into a ready state for the Merge which is slated to occur around September 15 once the final ("Paris") upgrade goes live. Some concerns were raised over an almost one in ten missed block rate across the last 600 slots. This could be due to some validators being not fully upgraded to the latest software, which could leave them unable participate in the post-merge proof-of-stake network.

"Pure proof-of-stake (PPoS) blockchain Algorand has introduced cross-chain communication and transaction speed improvements with the latest upgrade to its protocol. The layer-1 blockchain network announced the implementation of State Proofs to its mainnet, which introduces trustless communication between different blockchain protocols. The upgrade also increased Algorand's processing speed from 1,200 to 6,000 transactions per second."