Today’s edition is brought to you by eTukTuk - the first automobile project on Cardano that hopes to shake up the EV industry and support developing countries.
GM. This is Milk Road, the Baby Bear’s bed of crypto newsletters - we’re just right.
Here’s what we got for you today:
- ETH will fail without these 3 moves - Vitalik 📝
- Meet the 4 crypto race contenders 🏇
- Milk Roaders Index: How are you feeling about the crypto market? 🤔
- A DAO is “a person” - the CFTC 🍪
Prices as of 10:00 AM ET
ETH WILL FAIL WITHOUT THESE 3 MOVES - VITALIK 📝
Vitalik Buterin (co-creator of Ethereum and our lanky king) dropped a new blog post last week.
It’s called “The Three Transitions”.
Now I’ll be honest, Vitaliks blog posts are a lot like the Fast & Furious movies - they’re long, confusing, and sometimes put me to sleep. (sorry, VDog)
But this one really caught my attention.
Vitalik believes there are 3 things that are crucial to Ethereum’s future. Without them, Ethereum will fail. Plain and simple.
It’s a 15-minute read, but here’s the 2-minute MilkNotes™ summary:
There are three “transitions” needed to turn Ethereum from an experimental tech → open, global, and permissionless tech.
Here they are:
1/ The L2 scaling transition - everyone moving to rollups.
Ethereum rollups are a type of Layer 2 scaling technology that processes a batch of transactions off-chain and then submits them all together on-chain.
Optimism, Arbitrum, and zkSync are some of the most popular roll-ups. (But none are better than Fruit By The Foot.)
Why this transition needs to happen: Rollups make transactions A LOT cheaper.
Right now,
- It costs about $3.65 to swap tokens on the Ethereum mainnet
- It costs ~$0.10 to do the same thing on other rollups
And when Ethereum sees a lot of activity, those fees can get really high. (~$100)
According to Vitalik - without cheap fees, Ethereum adoption will fail.
2/ The wallet security transition - everyone moving to smart contract wallets.
There’s a big dilemma in crypto right now: where’s the safest place to store your assets?
Central exchanges are shutting down. Software wallets are getting hacked. Hardware wallets have more trust issues than Drake.
Vitalik’s answer: smart contract wallets.
These have:
- No single point of failure: there is no single thing (and ideally, no collection of things that travel together) that, if stolen, can give an attacker access to your funds.
- Low mental overhead: it shouldn’t take rocket science to use it.
- Maximum ease of transacting: most normal activities should not require much more effort than they do in regular wallets (eg. Metamask)
It’s the Secure Trinity.
Two popular smart contract wallets are the Argent wallet and the Loopring wallet.
Why this transition needs to happen: Without a safe place to store crypto - users will keep losing funds, lose trust, and just end up moving back to centralized solutions.
3/ The privacy transition - everyone moving to “privacy-preserving” tools.
Right now the blockchain is an open book. Everyone can see everything.
Transactions. Wallet balances. You name it.
But not everyone loves that concept. Imagine if your current bank account and all your daily purchases were made public…
Why this transition needs to happen: Vitalik believes that having all transactions available for anyone to see is far too high a privacy sacrifice for many users.
Because of this, he thinks most users would move onto centralized solutions that at least (somewhat) hide your data.
And those are the three big things Vitalik thinks Ethereum needs: rollups, smart contract wallets, and privacy tools. He says all 3 need to happen too.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Vitalik, my G, you created Ethereum - why don’t you just implement the transitions yourself?”
Simple. It’s not up to him.
You see, unlike Zuck at Facebook, Vitalik isn’t the CEO of Ethereum. There is no CEO. It’s decentralized.
But he does have influence and a voice. So even though his blogs aren’t commandments, it’s always cool to get his opinions and thoughts.
Ultimately, it comes down to the Ethereum community and if they want to make these moves.
Only time will tell…
THE NEXT BIG THING IN ELECTRIC VEHICLES
The electric vehicle industry is firing on all cylinders. Between new models and competitors, innovation around batteries, and Elon’s focus returning to Tesla, the future's looking bright.
And when it comes to new initiatives, the EV industry is full of them.
The latest? EV 🤝 Blockchain
That’s right, the first automotive project is arriving on Cardano. Introducing eTukTuk.
eTukTuk has BIG ambitions: To build an affordable network of charging stations and electric vehicles for the developing world.
Here’s some more info on them:
- Their initiative cuts carbon emissions and improves air quality, with a focus on developing nations that need it most
- Their team is made up of seasoned professionals with a background in Finance, Tech, Automotive, and Blockchain
- Utilizing the blockchain allows them to create digital identities, provide wider access for users, and reward network participants through the $TUK token
Learn more about eTukTuk and $TUK below!
THE U.S. IS LOSING THE CRYPTO RACE 🏇
Countries want one thing: to be the crypto hub of the world.
It's a global race. And there’s gonna be winners… and losers.
Let's take a look at the contenders:
1/ The U.S.
It’s cracking down harder on crypto than my mom did on me after I stole from her vodka stash in the 10th grade.
The SEC sued Binance & Coinbase, everyone’s leaving for greener, foreign pastures, and 50% of BTC on U.S.-based exchanges has left for ones overseas. Folks are spooked…
2/ The U.K.
Our friends across the pond are reaping some of the benefits of that though - a16z just announced it’s setting up shop there.
That’s partly because the UK’s Prime Minister is pro-crypto - the Royal Mint, for example, dropped an NFT for sale in March.
3/ Hong Kong
China may be on the fence about crypto, but Hong Kong’s going all in.
- Just opened crypto trading to retail investors
- Invited Coinbase to apply for an exchange license there
- Has had a bunch of crypto companies apply to set up shop there
Not too shabby.
4/ Dubai
It has (heads up, here comes the “R” word) regulations when it comes to the crypto space. Clear rules for companies that want to operate there = muy bueno.
Everyone & their mother wants a slice of the market: Crypto.com and Coinbase have applied for a license. And Binance has been there for a while now.
Plus, they are building a cool-ass Bitcoin tower there…
The Results: We don't know who's gonna win, but we do know who's losing…
The U.S.
It’s fixing to learn the hard way how a lack of clear crypto laws will put it behind.
MILK ROADERS INDEX: HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT CRYPTO? 🤔
Last week, we asked you a question… how are you feeling about the crypto markets?
Well, the results are in….
Most Roaders are feelin’ like Switzerland - neutral.
Then we asked you why you felt that way, here were some of our favorite responses:
- Stefan:“No matter what will happen to exchanges and with regulators, Bitcoin, and crypto can't be controlled or manipulated. Sure, they might tank the price for a while (let's say that the US chooses to ban every crypto transaction, that'd cause a massive dump). At the same time, they can't ban crypto itself. They can't control it. That's the power of it.”
- Jeremy:“No storm lasts forever.”
- Mack:“There is a big discount in the market. But first to get back confidence, The fed is forcing a lot of pain and putting some kids on the naughty step from some needed "time out". Hopefully they will learn the lesson so it’s not the wild wild west where anything goes. Short-term pain, long-term gain. ”
- Zinemoun:“I have been in the crypto realm since 2013 so I have seen all kinds of attempts to shake down the disruptive revolution from governments, banking institutions, and authorities around the world! The crypto world will prevail against the conventional financial system! ;) ”
- Bas:“Darwin at play in a high-risk industry/asset class. Likely this is a “mass extinction” cycle that will clear the way for new growth and life. If we’re honest, most of this is well deserved on the principals playing fast and loose - if not outright dishonest. ”
- JJ:“While the regulatory headwinds are strong, I’ve learned from past bear cycles. This is an opportunity to buy. Especially some L1s that are in the down ”
P.S. - If you didn’t get a chance to vote last week, hit reply to this email and let us know how you’re feeling about the crypto market!
MILK & COOKIES 🍪
A federal judge ruled in favor of the CFTC’s belief that a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) is “a person.” Watch out DAOs…
Sturdy Finance (DeFi lending protocol) got hacked for $800K. Another day, another attack
Tether issued 1B USDT tokens in the Ethereum blockchain. They’re permitted but unissued, meaning they’re for future swap requests.
House Republicans filed a bill to fire Gary Gensler and restructure the SEC. This is textbook “f*ck around and find out”.
MILKY MEMES 🤣
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ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
remember to hydrate, Roaders
— Milk Road Images (@MilkRoadImages)1:29 PM • Jun 13, 2023
DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.
