Bienvenidos mis ositos, tu siempre eres mis queridos! (Welcome back little bears you are always my dears!)
Recently Offchain Labs finally put the finishing touches on the long awaited Arbitrum Nitro upgrade. It also happened to be Arbitrum’s first birthday.
Soon we’ll see the EVEN MORE long awaited Ethereum Merge. From an end user perspective I probably won’t notice much.
But all the Proof Of Work FUDsters can finally shut up at least for Ethereum. We MIGHT see some more inflows from big funds that previously had ESG (environmental, social, governance) restrictions.
As a panda I fully approve this pic.
Arbitrum Nitro should see a decrease in fees so that is an obvious benefit for DeFi users. The Merge may result in a deflationary impact on Ethereum prices in the medium to long term.
But Paaanda, everyone else is excited about this news. I mean Vitalik looks REALLY excited about this! Why do you sound so glum?!?
Well frens, maybe I’m just greedy or maybe just impatient. Maybe both.
If you look at the ETH price chart things look a bit limp unlike Vitalik.
Now these announcements are welcome but by themselves won’t lead to a sustained rally.
Too be fair the macroeconomic backdrop looks bleak and the whole crypto market looks like panda poo. There were some occasional girthy green candles but the overall trend has been down lately.
For some reason people prefer food and a warm shelter over digital doggie coins and ape pictures.
Go figure.
I keep reminding myself that DeFi developers are only human. Building a more just and open financial system takes time.
The good news there’s still more Ethereum goodness to come. The surge, verge, splurge, purge etc,
Zksync should be coming soon as well. More inter Ethereum competition means less interest in alternate L1s.
Laying the groundwork for real utility and eventual mass adoption will be challenging work.
One of the biggest complaints about Ethereum were the ridiculously high gas fees. Unfortunately that won’t go away after the Merge.
The good news is that Arbitrum, zksync and other layer 2 (L2) rollups offer transaction fee relief. There are also bridging solutions that make the transition from fiat directly to L2 a bit easier.
Solidity developers can finally do something now that most of CeFi scammers and dubious ETH competitors have died.
It will take time for people that got fleeced by crypto grifters to recover financially. Some will never come back.
There’s still a chance for some to come back if the crypto community can protect and grow user’s funds securely. It will take time and effort to regain that trust.
There’s still more work to be done but I’m cautiously optimistic for the next cycle starting in 2024.
Things are heading in the right direction for the Ethereum community. Just don’t expect to be a tycoon overnight.
Obviously none of this is formal financial or tax advice. You need to find qualified professionals in your jurisdiction.
Be sharp, stay hungry let’s get that money!
