ETHEREUM MERGE

The big blockchain news story in the past week was the Ethereum Merge success. The Merge, referring to merging the Proof-of-Work Ethereum Mainnet with the Proof-of-Stake Beacon Chain, was successfully executed on 15 September 2022, and this has reduced the Ethereum power consumption by about 99.95%, making Ethereum a much more environmentally friendly blockchain that is expected to be more ready for wider adoption for the future.

When Ethereum was launched in 2015, the network ran on a Proof-of-Work consensus that relied on miners to process transactions; in 2020, the Proof-of-Stake Beacon Chain was created to allow validators to stake ETH in preparation for the eventual transition to the Proof-of-Stake mechanism. The Beacon Chain ran in parallel with the Mainnet until the Merge. After The Merge, the Beacon Chain became the consensus engine for all network data, including execution layer transactions and account balances; validators have replaced miners to secure the Ethereum network, and staking rewards have replaced mining rewards.

For holders of ETH and ERC20 tokens, no action needs to be taken, all the ledger data since the Ethereum genesis remains on the blockchain, the wallets work just like before the Merge, and changes in transaction time and gas are minimal and should not be observable. However, the Merge has enabled Ethereum to be improved in the future in terms of scaling (using methods not possible on a Proof-of-Work blockchain). A burn mechanism could also make ETH deflationary.

The price of ETH has taken a hit since the Merge, following significant pump in anticipation of the Merge, which saw ETH doubling in price between 19 June and 14 August.

To read more about the Merge and the Beacon Chain:

WETH HODL VAULT

To celebrate the Merge milestone, ICHI has launched a new HODL Vault for ETH/wETH hodlers, you can deposit $ETH or $wETH into the vault and earn yields paid in both $ETH and $ICHI. At the time of writing this newsletter, the total value of liquidity in this vault was 235.93 $wETH, comprising of 223 $wETH and 3303 $ICHI.

You can access this Vault by visiting: https://app.ichi.org/hodlvault?poolId=1036&back=hodlvault

WBTC HODL VAULT

ICHI also has 2 HODL Vaults for wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) hodlers, on the Ethereum network and the Polygon network. Combined, the vaults have a liquidity value of almost 33 Bitcoins. If you hodl $wBTC, you can deposit your $wBTC into either Vault and start earning yields in both $wBTC and $ICHI.

To learn more about how “wrapped BTC” is different from BTC, you can find more info here: https://www.kraken.com/en-us/learn/what-is-wrapped-bitcoin-wbtc

MESSARI MAINNET

The Messari Mainnet this year will take place from the 21st to the 23rd of September in New York City. The presentations/discussions will cover a wide range of topics, from DeFi governance to CeFi contagion, from DAO productivity to DeFi degening, from adoption to policy, every major entity of the crypto industry will be represented at the event. The ICHI team is always working on expanding and deepening our connections to the wider crypto industry, and that’s why members of the team will also attend the conference and they are looking forward to an incredible time of networking and building new partnerships!

That’s a wrap for this issue of the newsletter, and until next time