Sup, nerds!

Here’s what you’re getting in today’s edition:

• 💅 This is cool: Careful, Pokemon have guns now.

• 🔎 This seems important: Grayscale Bitcoin ETF = problem child.

• 🤝 Partner: Exploring DeFi Technologies (a free webinar you don’t want to miss!)​

• 🔪 Let's dissect this: GPU accelerators (Web3’s home movers).

Terms used in this edition (click for an explanation, or ​ask Web(GPT)3!​):
Web3, NFTs, Layer-2, Protocols, ZK-Proof.

💅 This is cool:

Careful, Pokemon Have Guns Now.

In one sentence: The creator of Palworld (a new hit game) made his early fortune in crypto, which has sparked a wave of speculation on whether the game will integrate NFTs.

This time last year, we reported:

“…of the $7.1B that was doled out to Web3 companies in 2022, the gaming category sucked up 62% of it!“

Ever since then we’ve been anxiously waiting to see something (anything!) come out and find traction.

And this past week, our hopes weren’t answered, but instead teased by:

Palworld - aka “Pokemon, with guns.”

(This thing came out of nowhere, and promptly went on to sell 7 million copies in under a week).

Dumb name, yes. Riddled with potential copyright infringements? Double yes.

Web3 integrated? No (😫).

But here’s where the ‘teased hope’ comes in: Palworld was created by a dude who made his early fortune in crypto, which has sparked a wave of speculation on whether the game will integrate NFTs.

Our bet is, it won’t.

The game is being distributed on Steam and Xbox, both of which have either outright banned NFTs (Steam), or frown upon them (Xbox).

And the Palworld creators are going to have to answer some bigger questions first, like:

How do these characters not impede on the Pokemon Company’s intellectual property? (Cause there are some pretty close calls here).

Oh well, we can dream…

🥇 Want the news before anyone else?

🔎 This seems important:

The Grayscale Bitcoin ETF Is the Crypto Market’s ‘Problem Child’ Right Now…Here’s Why.

In one sentence: Grayscale’s ETF fees are so high because their holders would sooner pay a 1.5% management fee vs. 15-20% capital gains tax (and they know it).

Remember the other day when we talked about how the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF was crashing the crypto market?

Basically it was because they refused to lower their management fees to compete with the other ETF offerings, and investors were selling out by the billions.

For context, the other 10 Bitcoin ETFs on the market have fees ranging from 0.19% to 0.39%, while Grayscale’s sits at a weighty 1.5%

Which begs the question:

If everyone is bailing from their fund, why wouldn’t they just lower their fees?

Well…

It looks like Grayscale ran the numbers and figured most of their share holders wouldn’t want to sell and take the 15-20% tax hit.

And they were (mostly) right!

Cause, while the Grayscale ETF has shed close to $4B since its launch — which is more than its two biggest competitors (BlackRock and Fidelity) hold combined — the fund still holds a cool $21B of investor funds right now.

Unfortunately, this means there’s still plenty more to sell, which could lead to continued depressed crypto prices over the coming week(s).

(This too shall pass 🧘).

🤝 Partner:

Exploring DeFi Technologies (a free webinar you don’t want to miss!)

If you haven't heard of DeFi Technologies yet, you’re missing out! 

But it doesn’t have to be that way…

As the Decentralised Finance ecosystem continues to grow and expand, DeFi Tech actively explores opportunities to drive innovation and develop creative, innovative, sustainable solutions, connecting investors to the future of finance.

Valour (a subsidiary of DeFi Tech) offers exchange-traded products (ETPs), listed on regulated stock exchanges across Europe, that enable individuals and institutions to invest in digital assets simply and securely.

The good news is, Russell Starr (Head of Capital Markets at DeFi Tech) is hosting a webinar on January 30th at 10am PT/1pm ET to discuss all of the opportunities he sees for 2024. 

Join the DeFi Tech team for a sneak peak into what they - as an industry leader - are focused on achieving throughout the year.

The presentation is just 30 minutes, followed by a 15-minute Q&A session.

Click the big red button below to register (it’s free)!

🔪 Let's dissect this:

GPU Accelerators Are the Blockchain Equivalent of Home Movers

In one sentence: A company known as Space and Time wrote some open-source code that helps to make Ethereum waaay more efficient.

Old News: Ethereum is pushing layer-2 protocols to adapt ZK-Proof processing

New News: There is a new open source GPU accelerator that will help these ZK-proof protocols develop and work faster. 

Did y’all get that?

Neither did we. Let’s dive in…

A few weeks ago there was a push from ETH Daddy (Vitalik Buterin) to have protocols use zero knowledge (zk) proofs - which is basically a way of communicating data, without exposing all of the details.

(Similar to how asking the question “are you over 25 - yes/no?” demands less details/specifics than “what’s your exact date of birth?”).

Point is: Zk proofs help to protect user privacy on Ethereum, and speed up a whole range of processes.

Buuuut, they also take up a BUNCH of compute power, to the point where companies have developed custom GPUs to help process things faster. 

“Cool, this is still sounding foreign” - us, while reading that.

These GPUs are the human equivalent of hiring movers when you move house. 

Sure, you can pack all the boxes and move them yourself. But unless you have a flatbed truck, there’s a good chance you’ll need movers for the bigger pieces of furniture.

These GPUs will help with the heavy lifting as far as processing/transferring data goes, speeding things up overall.

Which is neat, but what’s better is this:

Space and Time, the company responsible for creating this whiz-bang GPU and (more importantly) the code that makes it so darn efficient, has open-sourced its software!

Meaning anyone can use it/tweak it/build on it, for free.

A nice kumbaya moment for the industry!

Optimistic VS ZK Rollups