Speaker 1: The coin Bureau podcast is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: A lot of what there, I suppose the mainstream media
Speaker 1: is focusing on is that this switch to proof of
Speaker 1: steak is going to dramatically reduce Ethereum's energy uses so usage.
Speaker 1: So the what the Ethereum website is saying is drop
Speaker 1: in how much energy the Ethereum network uses, which is
Speaker 1: which is pretty pretty significant. Welcome everyone to a coin
Speaker 1: Bureau podcast. His name is mad Mike Mooch. My name
Speaker 1: is Guy, and this is the first episode of the
Speaker 1: podcast we've recorded remotely. M That is right. The restraining
Speaker 1: order has finally been been put into place, but finally
Speaker 1: I've managed to get you away from me. Um Mikey,
Speaker 1: you're in London, is that right? Yes? And I am
Speaker 1: here in Dubai, where i've been for This is my
Speaker 1: third weekend Dubai. Now, so I thought I just briefly
Speaker 1: kind of mentioned to people who sort of haven't been
Speaker 1: keeping up why I'm here in Dubai. Basically, I think
Speaker 1: I think I've been mentioning it to you sort of
Speaker 1: on and off for a while. It's been kind of
Speaker 1: in the works for a bit. Basically, I've come out
Speaker 1: here to kind of see what's going on. Really, I've
Speaker 1: been speaking to so many people in the space and
Speaker 1: like that. You can't really talk to someone in crypto
Speaker 1: who kind of works in the industry. You can't really
Speaker 1: talk to them for very long in my in my
Speaker 1: experience without sort of Dubai coming up in in some way,
Speaker 1: shape or forms. So yeah, I kind of thought, I've
Speaker 1: just got to get out there spend some time. Their
Speaker 1: loads of people, you know, kind of wanted to meet
Speaker 1: and all that sort of stuff. So we're doing that.
Speaker 1: Um and obviously we've got a few kind of coin
Speaker 1: Bureau staff members who've been who are based here already,
Speaker 1: so they've managed to sort us out with a nice
Speaker 1: little office and studio that we can use. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like when l A and Hollywood is two movies.
Speaker 1: Dubai is really becoming that for crypto. Yeah, it is
Speaker 1: the epicenter of crypto at the moment. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of people are moving there, a lot of people are
Speaker 1: are based there, and and there's big conferences and the
Speaker 1: government are very favorable for it. So I think it's
Speaker 1: it's it's I understand why you're there, you know, if
Speaker 1: you if you're going to be making movies you'd be
Speaker 1: you'd be in l A or Bollywood, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Those are two places that are the big
Speaker 1: filmhouse epicenters. Yeah, and and Nollywood apparent I remember reading that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: apparently I have to check this because I'm going into
Speaker 1: this factoid completely blind, but I think I remember reading
Speaker 1: that Nollywood's output puts both Bolly would and Hollywood to shame.
Speaker 1: I'm not Yeah, they apparently they just absolutely turned it
Speaker 1: out there. I'm not sure of the overall quality, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's certainly a massive, massive industry. If you think our
Speaker 1: action films are over the top, you should see some
Speaker 1: of the Bollywood ones, and I imagine the Nollywood ones
Speaker 1: are are probably of a similar elk. Yeah, oh wow,
Speaker 1: Well that's that's going to be my weekend watching. This weekend.
Speaker 1: I've got to find myself a Bollywood and let's let's
Speaker 1: let's be let's be perfectly honest. That's not going to
Speaker 1: be a weekend watching. You're going to be glued to Ethereum.
Speaker 1: That's right, this week that's right, Yes, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 1: It kind of brings me to what I was going
Speaker 1: to talk about briefly in this episode. Yeah, basically, we're
Speaker 1: in a kind of weird situation in crypto at the
Speaker 1: moment because really the merge Ethereums merge, which we've talked
Speaker 1: about a few times now, is really the only story
Speaker 1: in town at the moment um. Obviously there's other stuff
Speaker 1: going on in the crypto industry at the moment, but
Speaker 1: everyone is holding their breath. It is the death of
Speaker 1: the Queen. It's the same sort of effect on the
Speaker 1: news cycle the Queen's death has had. It just takes
Speaker 1: it over as the merge of Ethereum. Yes, kind of
Speaker 1: the all. It's what everyone's talking about. I think, I
Speaker 1: think that's I think that's very fair to say. Ye,
Speaker 1: it's a nice analogy. Yeah, it's Um. And obviously that
Speaker 1: is that is incredibly annoying to to some people, you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of the Queen's death, any sort of Republicans
Speaker 1: out there are obviously tutting into their tea at all
Speaker 1: the blanket coverage. And I guess with Ethereum as well,
Speaker 1: all the bitcoiners or anyone or anyone else who's just
Speaker 1: not an Ethereum fan, I think it's just going Can
Speaker 1: we just can we just get this over with, please
Speaker 1: can we talk about something else? Um? And to be fair,
Speaker 1: I think probably a lot of Ethereum fans are kind
Speaker 1: of thinking the same thing, because it's just, you know, everyone,
Speaker 1: I think just wants it to be to be done,
Speaker 1: to be over. And the good news is that it
Speaker 1: is only now. Let me check this. If you go
Speaker 1: to Google, actually, anyone listening, if you just type in
Speaker 1: e merge into Google, Google now has a little countdown timer. Um,
Speaker 1: so ethery e merge countdown one day, twenty hours and
Speaker 1: fifty eight minutes to go. Um, it's different online, and
Speaker 1: I've just realized that's because I'm in a different time zone. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: mine is what hang on? Why should that be? Why
Speaker 1: should that be different? One day? Yeah? I suppose that's why. Yeah, um, yes,
Speaker 1: so yeah, And I think that's really interesting. You know,
Speaker 1: even even the mighty Google is kind of acknowledging that
Speaker 1: this is this is a big deal, because I think
Speaker 1: when you get trapped in the crypto bubble a bit,
Speaker 1: you tend to think that everyone, everyone, the world over
Speaker 1: cares deeply about Ethereum's upcoming transition to proof of steak,
Speaker 1: and then every so often you kind of get a
Speaker 1: reality check. It's like, actually, the vast majority of people
Speaker 1: across the world don't know and certainly don't care. Um So,
Speaker 1: but that's in I think that's really interesting that Google
Speaker 1: is is kind of counting down to it, and for
Speaker 1: anyone listening or indeed watching if they're if they're particularly masochistic.
Speaker 1: We're recording this on the on Tuesday, September, so the
Speaker 1: merge is just a little under two days away, and
Speaker 1: so obviously, yeah, it's we're hoping to put this episode
Speaker 1: out pretty quickly so as so as people can hear
Speaker 1: it and and you know, in advance of the actual merge.
Speaker 1: But I thought as well, as well as kind of
Speaker 1: talking about what the merge is doing and or or
Speaker 1: hoping to do, actually I thought we could look past
Speaker 1: the merge a little bit as well, because there are
Speaker 1: some there are some important things to to consider. Um
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's there's absolutely no doubt that this is
Speaker 1: a really big moment, not just for Ethereum, but for
Speaker 1: for cryptocurrency in general. And actually, the best analogy I've
Speaker 1: heard of it so far has come from the Ethereum
Speaker 1: devs themselves. They compared it to changing the engine on
Speaker 1: a rocket ship. In midflight, which I think is that
Speaker 1: that was gonna that was gonna just yeah, just just
Speaker 1: just fill everyone with confidence. This could go wrong. Everyone
Speaker 1: listens really wrong. Oh I thought it was going to
Speaker 1: be all right, but now I've heard that. I'm actually terrified.
Speaker 1: Um well, let me just see who's who said this?
Speaker 1: The people who built the rocket. Yeah, so there's no doubt,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt that there is a lot at stake.
Speaker 1: And this is I mean, this is the reason why
Speaker 1: the merge has been delayed for such a long time.
Speaker 1: There was you know, it was it was originally supposed
Speaker 1: to happen last year, really and now it's been kind
Speaker 1: of put back again and again and again. Um, but
Speaker 1: here we are, and it looks, you know, it looks
Speaker 1: pretty much inevitable that it is going to happen within
Speaker 1: the next couple of days. I should add for anyone
Speaker 1: who might be confused, the actual timing of the merge
Speaker 1: isn't decided by the devs that no one's actually put
Speaker 1: a solid time on it. It's it's decided by block height.
Speaker 1: So it's going to the merge is going to take
Speaker 1: place at a certain block on the Ethereum blockchain, and
Speaker 1: that of course is informed by network activity, you know,
Speaker 1: how many people are using the network and transacting on
Speaker 1: all this sort of thing. So it's it's not kind
Speaker 1: of set in stone. But obviously that the little countdown timer.
Speaker 1: Again if you if you look at that, it's kind
Speaker 1: of taking into account. You can see the current difficulty,
Speaker 1: the hash rate UM, all that, the merge difficulty, all
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. So it's, yeah, this is just
Speaker 1: giving us a kind of timer based on based on
Speaker 1: those calculations. So that's why you know, it's not scheduled
Speaker 1: for midday on the September because that couldn't be done.
Speaker 1: So all makes sense so far. Again and again we've
Speaker 1: we've talked about the merge a bit before, haven't we. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we we have proof of proof of steak, not proof
Speaker 1: of work. Yeah. Yeah. Basically, the merge is the switch
Speaker 1: to proof of steak. So the execution layer, which is
Speaker 1: the current ethereum main chain if you like, that is
Speaker 1: going to join with this new proof of steak consensus layer,
Speaker 1: which is the beacon chain UM. So this, you know,
Speaker 1: and this is the kind of big midflight rocketship engine
Speaker 1: switch over if you like. And yeah, it's it's unprecedented
Speaker 1: kind of in the history of software as well, and
Speaker 1: I think this is part of the reason why Google
Speaker 1: is kind of making a big deal of it as well.
Speaker 1: I think anyone who anyone who works in in computing,
Speaker 1: anyone who kind of understands just how much work has
Speaker 1: gone into this, I think, and even if they don't
Speaker 1: work in crypto or aren't particularly interested in crypto, I
Speaker 1: think you can still appreciate that this is a massive,
Speaker 1: massive job and you know, changing the entire consensus mechanism
Speaker 1: of the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, the busiest
Speaker 1: networking cryptocurrency. You know, as we've talked about before, it
Speaker 1: supports so much of what is going on in the
Speaker 1: crypto space, which is why it's it's so relevant to
Speaker 1: to really everyone. UM and yeah, I guess the kind
Speaker 1: of the big headlines for it, if you like UM.
Speaker 1: A lot of what there I suppose the mainstream media
Speaker 1: is focusing on is that this switch to proof of
Speaker 1: steak is going to dramatically reduce Ethereum's energy uses so usage.
Speaker 1: So the what the Ethereum website is saying is drop
Speaker 1: in how much energy the Ethereum network uses, which is
Speaker 1: which is pretty pretty significant. I think that's a lot.
Speaker 1: That is a lot. I'm I'm yeah, I'm not mathematician,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that's a lot. That's that's a fairly bit.
Speaker 1: That's a higher percentage than I ever got on on
Speaker 1: any exact anything. Um. Yeah, and so it's um, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a huge it's a huge moment in that,
Speaker 1: And obviously that has implications for for ethereum, for cryptocurrency,
Speaker 1: and obviously for the you know, the the native asset
Speaker 1: of ethereum, because the speculation is that obviously UM environmental,
Speaker 1: social and governance investing is the e s G is
Speaker 1: now a really big thing, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: speculation that institutional investors haven't been comfortable about the idea
Speaker 1: of investing in, you know, in the in the ethereum
Speaker 1: network because it uses currently uses proof of work, which
Speaker 1: is obviously very energy intensive, and that doesn't fit in
Speaker 1: with the e s G goals that have kind of
Speaker 1: taken over everyone's kind of all sort of mainstream investment thinking,
Speaker 1: if you like, so is that through big, big like
Speaker 1: investment companies like the black Rock. Yeah, so e s
Speaker 1: G kind of e s G kind of grew out
Speaker 1: of Black Rock Um, it was the it's very much
Speaker 1: the brainchild of of Larry Fink, who is the who
Speaker 1: is the Black Rock CEO, And he wrote a he
Speaker 1: wrote a kind of memo to you know, to all
Speaker 1: these firms and you know, all these kind of big
Speaker 1: corporate entities and government entities, you know, talking about the
Speaker 1: what he saw as the importance of of E s G.
Speaker 1: You know, an E s G switch in how in
Speaker 1: how people invested, and that has very much that has
Speaker 1: very much taken over the narrative around investing now. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the fact that the fact that the THEORYM is going
Speaker 1: to be is going to be consuming you know, virtually
Speaker 1: no electricity compared to what it compared to what it
Speaker 1: currently does is big news. And um yeah, a lot
Speaker 1: of people are expecting that we will see a lot
Speaker 1: of institutional investment in in each kind of post merge. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that's I think that's fairly likely. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: kind of I'm not being too complacent on that front.
Speaker 1: And I think, actually, you know, that's a good point
Speaker 1: to make in general, that the expectations are certainly my
Speaker 1: expectations are that the merge will be a success because
Speaker 1: so much work has been done on it up to
Speaker 1: this point. You know, they've gone through numerous test nets
Speaker 1: we had, and numerous upgrades as well, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's been a very much a step by step process
Speaker 1: to get here. So I'm I'm pretty confident that they've
Speaker 1: they've tested out, that they've gained out every possible scenario.
Speaker 1: But of course, when you if you allow yourself to
Speaker 1: get too complacent, you you you get a nasty surprise
Speaker 1: in situations like this. So I'm you know, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: kind of I've kind of hedged myself against the possibility
Speaker 1: of something going wrong with the merge, and we shouldn't.
Speaker 1: We shouldn't assume that it's all going to go off
Speaker 1: the hitch. I mean, you know, it could be it
Speaker 1: could be the they've used the rocket analogy. It could
Speaker 1: be you know, the the Challenger disaster. NASA they are
Speaker 1: very particulous, and they put lots of you know, work
Speaker 1: and stuff into every one of their launches, but sometimes
Speaker 1: you're going to get a Challenger every now and again.
Speaker 1: That yeah, that's very true, That's very true. And yeah,
Speaker 1: everything would have been you know, all these kind of
Speaker 1: big disasters that happened. You know, everything is tested rigorously,
Speaker 1: but something something still sneaks through, doesn't it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's I think that's a good analogy in
Speaker 1: a way as well, it should be should be wary,
Speaker 1: That's yeah. I mean expect the unexpected, I guess is
Speaker 1: probably a good rule of thumb. The other big kind
Speaker 1: of headline I guess if you like about the merge
Speaker 1: is the fact that itself is going to become a
Speaker 1: deflationary currency. And this is this is something that a
Speaker 1: lot of people have picked up on as a really
Speaker 1: bullish case for long term UM. Basically, you know, in
Speaker 1: a nutshell, more is going to be burned through transaction fees,
Speaker 1: through the network being used than is actually being issued.
Speaker 1: So the overall supply of post merge is expected to decline.
Speaker 1: And obviously, when you're talking about an asset, if the
Speaker 1: supply declines and the demand aren't stays the same or increases,
Speaker 1: then the price of that asset will will go up.
Speaker 1: That's you know, that's fairly that's fairly basic economics. UM.
Speaker 1: And you know some people have UM they're saying the
Speaker 1: move to proof of stake, where issuance is expected to
Speaker 1: drop from a little over four percent to under half
Speaker 1: a percent, so basically about an emission reduction um. And
Speaker 1: some people have compared this you remember me talking in
Speaker 1: the past about the bitcoin harving. Yeah, so yeah, so
Speaker 1: this event that happens kind of every four years or
Speaker 1: so when the amount of new bitcoin, the amount of
Speaker 1: new BTC awarded issue, yeah, issued with each block is
Speaker 1: cut in half. And that is generally, you know, that
Speaker 1: is generally that has so far always been very bullish
Speaker 1: for Bitcoin's price. You know that the the the issue
Speaker 1: drops um and this the the amount the amount of
Speaker 1: decline in issuance that eth is going to see is
Speaker 1: expected to see post merge. People are comparing that to
Speaker 1: basically three harvings. You know that that's that's the sort
Speaker 1: of effect we're talking about. So if you hear this
Speaker 1: term triple harving being being kind of kicked around in
Speaker 1: relation to the merge, that's what that's what people are
Speaker 1: referring to. So, yeah, there is there is a lot
Speaker 1: of speculation that this is going to be you know,
Speaker 1: if this is if this goes to plan, if it's successful,
Speaker 1: this is going to be very very bullish for for
Speaker 1: ethereum in the in the long term. And I mean
Speaker 1: I subscribe to that view as well. But again i'd
Speaker 1: i'd urge caution. I think a lot of people, and
Speaker 1: I think this is as good a time as any
Speaker 1: really to kind of talk about a few of the
Speaker 1: misconceptions around the merge as well, um, because yeah, some
Speaker 1: people are kind of still under the delusion that, you know,
Speaker 1: post merge Ethereum is suddenly going to become super fast
Speaker 1: and super cheap to use and it will be quote
Speaker 1: unquote finished, which is which is not true, And in fact,
Speaker 1: Vitalic himself, should I cross myself when I say that,
Speaker 1: I don't know? Probably how should we acknowledge that maybe
Speaker 1: we should make a sort of Ethereum triangle on our
Speaker 1: heads whenever we say Batalic Btalic has spoken praise beat
Speaker 1: of Metallic. He has said that Postma so lame, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: He has said that post merge Ethereum will only be
Speaker 1: fifty complete, which I think is kind of exciting really.
Speaker 1: And again, if you refer to the Ethereum website itself, um,
Speaker 1: it says of the merge, this sets the stage for
Speaker 1: future scaling upgrades, including charding. So although the merge is
Speaker 1: a massive moment, although this switch to a proof of
Speaker 1: state network is so so important. It's kind of it really,
Speaker 1: it's just the beginning of the next phase. So no
Speaker 1: one should see it as, you know, as as an end.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just it's the end of one phase
Speaker 1: at the beginning of a of an entirely new one.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of like when Facebook did, like they'd
Speaker 1: introduce a new sort of layout and everyone lose their
Speaker 1: ship about it. I want the old Facebook back. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's all terrible, ruined it, and then you know they're
Speaker 1: ruined Facebook when and then you know, two months later,
Speaker 1: no one's talking about it, and they're they're using all
Speaker 1: the new features or an operating system update. That's probably
Speaker 1: I love just here to do analogies every now and again.
Speaker 1: You're just you're absolutely firing the analogies out today, Mike.
Speaker 1: It's really for you, for you listeners who don't understand
Speaker 1: what Guy is saying, which is perfectly clear and reasonable.
Speaker 1: I'm just here to think of some stupid analogy of
Speaker 1: a rocket crash or or social media update. I think
Speaker 1: I think there's a there's a real beauty to it, Mikey.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. I think it's yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone because everyone goes, oh, I liked Windows? What was
Speaker 1: the one? Everyone like? Windows? Ten? Windows? Windows? Why can't
Speaker 1: we go back to Windows? And then yeah, the good
Speaker 1: old days, good old days. Do you remember? It was
Speaker 1: so it was so good. Windows was just so good.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, a couple of months later, it's like,
Speaker 1: what's what's Windows? Yeah? Windows XP, that was the one
Speaker 1: I liked. Listeners comment below, what's your Let us know
Speaker 1: what's your favorite iteration of Windows? Where we all can
Speaker 1: be back to make resift case we're talking about people's
Speaker 1: favorite Windows program. A lot of love going on there
Speaker 1: for XP right now? That's my personal favorite. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's It's true. I think this will be
Speaker 1: this will be something that's that's just so huge at
Speaker 1: the moment, so taking up so much, so much of
Speaker 1: our attention. But with a bit of luck, I think
Speaker 1: if it does. What's interesting to me though, Yeah, what's
Speaker 1: interesting to me though is when he says complete, So
Speaker 1: is Ethereum just like a game? Like is he going
Speaker 1: to complete it? What happens when you complete Ethereum? What
Speaker 1: is the end goal? What are the what is the
Speaker 1: the sort of final plan that he's got for it?
Speaker 1: That's a that's a good question. That's a good question. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll just say it'll just say game over, thanks for playing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, I'm sure there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: out there who genuinely believe that all these people who
Speaker 1: sort of say ether is Ether is a scam or
Speaker 1: ether as ethereums a Ponzi scheme. Um. That's a good question,
Speaker 1: because yeah, there is a lot, there is a lot
Speaker 1: still to happen, and because this is because this is cryptocurrency,
Speaker 1: because we're dealing with you know, real next level nerds here.
Speaker 1: They've somehow managed to make the next few stages of
Speaker 1: Ethereum all rhyme with the word merge. So we've got
Speaker 1: to look forward to the next thing is going to
Speaker 1: be the surge, followed by the verge, followed by the purge,
Speaker 1: and followed finally by by the splurge. Yeah, what happens
Speaker 1: with the purch You don't want to know what happens?
Speaker 1: Fotolics like, let's not let's not go there. Um No,
Speaker 1: I'll talk through what I'll talk through what those what
Speaker 1: those all mean in a minute, actually, because I think
Speaker 1: this is actually, you know, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: I don't want to be that person who's kind of
Speaker 1: jumping the gun, you know, looking ahead, looking ahead to
Speaker 1: all the other oddly named stages in in Ethereum's evolution
Speaker 1: before the big one has actually even taken place. Um.
Speaker 1: But I think in the context of what I was
Speaker 1: saying earlier about people expecting a lot from the merge,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's worthwhile to to look ahead and
Speaker 1: consider these other stages. So yeah, before I do that
Speaker 1: for anyone, anyone who's sort of finding the whole business
Speaker 1: of the merge confusing and kind of wants to learn
Speaker 1: more about it. Obviously, we've put out some videos on
Speaker 1: coin bureau we We've talked about the merge a lot,
Speaker 1: so you can check out. You can check it out.
Speaker 1: There's also a video that I put on coin bureau
Speaker 1: clips a few days ago how to prepare for the Merge,
Speaker 1: which you know, I suppose you really should have watched
Speaker 1: by now, But that is worth that is worth checking out.
Speaker 1: But I want to recommend one which is actually the
Speaker 1: Ethereum website has actually pinned it themselves. UM. It's by
Speaker 1: a channel called finematics UM, and I've actually met the
Speaker 1: chap who works on finematics. He's a really really lovely
Speaker 1: guy and very very smart. UM and Pinematics spelt f
Speaker 1: I n e Matics is a really really good channel.
Speaker 1: It kind of uses um, it uses graphics kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, to to explain what he's talking about. He
Speaker 1: he focuses on on DeFi on decentralized finance. But he's
Speaker 1: got a particularly good video about the merge and it's
Speaker 1: kind of all laid out with with sort of pictures
Speaker 1: and diagrams to help help people understand. So yeah, anyone
Speaker 1: listening or watching for that matter, who's who still kind
Speaker 1: of finds the finds the whole merged thing a bit confusing.
Speaker 1: Do check that out. That's either on YouTube at pinematics
Speaker 1: or or the Ethereum website itself. And on that Ethereum
Speaker 1: website there are loads of good kind of explainers about
Speaker 1: the merge and you know, a few a few sort
Speaker 1: of f A cues if you like things like that,
Speaker 1: so well worth checking out UM. But yeah, a couple
Speaker 1: of other things I think worth just sort of keeping
Speaker 1: an eye on, really or keeping a lookout for ahead
Speaker 1: of the merge in just under two days time. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there's going to be a lot of volatility in the
Speaker 1: crypto market because really because because of the uncertainty, I
Speaker 1: guess quite apart from all the other stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: all the other kind of macroeconomic things that are moving markets.
Speaker 1: We've actually today we've got the federal with the latest
Speaker 1: round of inflation figures in the United States that should
Speaker 1: be coming out very very soon. That's going to have
Speaker 1: a big impact on the market as well. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you've been following the crypto markets over the last
Speaker 1: few days, you'll have noticed that prices are more volatile
Speaker 1: than usual and that is only going to increase as
Speaker 1: the merge gets nearer. And it's you kind of imagine
Speaker 1: that that volatility will calm down after the merge if
Speaker 1: the merge is successful, but we'll we'll kind of have
Speaker 1: to wait and see on that really. So, Mike, if
Speaker 1: you're going to be trading, you know, if you're going
Speaker 1: to be trading vast amounts of shitcoin and things like that,
Speaker 1: just be just be careful, Okay, take care out there.
Speaker 1: Don't get don't get stone, thanks dad, um. Other things
Speaker 1: to look out for these these hedges. So, you know,
Speaker 1: basically the other kind of smart contract blockchains and things
Speaker 1: like Solana Avalanche Cardano, all of these, you know, also
Speaker 1: the layer zeros, I guess, like Polka Dot and Cosmos.
Speaker 1: You know, they are they are particularly volatile at the
Speaker 1: moment because a lot of people are buying buying up
Speaker 1: those to kind of hedge their portfolios in case, in
Speaker 1: case something does go wrong with the merge. What about
Speaker 1: the original, the one that they've forked off, which that
Speaker 1: guy that that hacker has got a load of, Yeah,
Speaker 1: original Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Yeah, classic Etherium Classic, Yeah, the
Speaker 1: same logo just green um Yeah, Ethereum Classics. Really, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a really interesting point actually because um yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're right that that came about the last time,
Speaker 1: you know, this very contentious fork in the wake of
Speaker 1: the dal hack. Now Ethereum Classic has has seen some
Speaker 1: has seen quite a lot of price appreciation. It's it's
Speaker 1: pumped quite a lot in the last few weeks. And
Speaker 1: the reason why is that basically, when Ethereum No is
Speaker 1: no longer proof of work, all these ethereum miners who
Speaker 1: have their very expensive mining machines are not going to
Speaker 1: be you know, are going to have their main source
Speaker 1: of revenue completely cut off. So the speculation is that
Speaker 1: a lot of them are going to switch switch their
Speaker 1: machines over and mine Ethereum Classic instead because that is
Speaker 1: obviously still proof of work. So um the yeah, the
Speaker 1: reason Ethereum Classic has been pumping for that because obviously
Speaker 1: the more miners that joined the Ethereum Classic network, the
Speaker 1: more decentralized, and therefore the more secure it becomes, the
Speaker 1: more hash power is being committed to it. So Ethereum
Speaker 1: Classic has been Yeah, has been pumping quite hard people
Speaker 1: either kind of anticipating that miners will switch over to
Speaker 1: to you know, to that network, or just if something
Speaker 1: does go catastrophically wrong with the merge and with you know,
Speaker 1: Ethereum itself. So yeah, that's been e t C. The
Speaker 1: Ethereum Classic coin that that's been m that's seen a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of action over the last few weeks.
Speaker 1: Can I just ask, so what with these miners. Are
Speaker 1: these machines able to switch over to other cryptocurrencies or
Speaker 1: are they just specifically built for mining one coin? That
Speaker 1: is a good question. I they can mind others, I think, um,
Speaker 1: And you know a good example is is raven Coin,
Speaker 1: which is has seen a lot of appreciation this week
Speaker 1: as well because a lot of people are again speculating
Speaker 1: that miners may switch to mining raven coin as well
Speaker 1: in order to, you know, in order to get some income. Um,
Speaker 1: as far as I know, I think you need in
Speaker 1: order to mind bitcoin. I think you need you need
Speaker 1: specialized mining equipment for that. So they ethery and miners
Speaker 1: won't won't be able to flick a switch and suddenly
Speaker 1: start mining bitcoin instead. Um, so yeah, I'll have to
Speaker 1: I'll have to check exactly what the what the stipulations
Speaker 1: are for for these for these mining machines. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I know that it's I know the ethery miners can
Speaker 1: mind a number of other cryptos, but yeah, they can't
Speaker 1: mind Bitcoin for whatever reason. So vitally is another analogy
Speaker 1: coming up here, but is almost like thatcher where she's
Speaker 1: just shutting down the mines and forcing all the miners
Speaker 1: to find other work or or move on to sort
Speaker 1: of mining coal, start mining ethereum, start mine. So I
Speaker 1: kept that one too myself. I think, well, you know,
Speaker 1: you can't, you can't. You can't score a goal with everyone,
Speaker 1: can you. It's I think I think I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's some sort of useful comparison. Buried in
Speaker 1: there somewhere we got switched from mining coal to mining
Speaker 1: soap or something. Yeah, um, yeah, so yeah, after that,
Speaker 1: after that little detour. Yeah, that that's the reason why
Speaker 1: Ethereum Classic has been has been doing well. The speculation
Speaker 1: as ethereum miners will will switch to mining that um
Speaker 1: and there is also talk now again I've mentioned before
Speaker 1: that some ethereum miners are none too happy about this
Speaker 1: switch to proof forstake, and you can you can kind
Speaker 1: of see why because their main source of income is
Speaker 1: being is being pulled out from under them. So there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of speculation over another proof of work
Speaker 1: fork of ethereum, and basically what that means is that
Speaker 1: when the network switches over, a number of ethereum miners
Speaker 1: may choose to continue mining the old chain, the mining
Speaker 1: the proof of work chain, and that now looks like happening.
Speaker 1: Ethereum pow Ethereum Power has been announced and plans to
Speaker 1: launch within twenty four hours of the merge itself happening.
Speaker 1: It has its own official Twitter and it couldn't Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so it must be. It must be on I think
Speaker 1: as well, there is a chance there is a good
Speaker 1: chance that that could gain some traction because the you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people believe very firmly that proof of
Speaker 1: work is more secure than proof of steak. And you'll
Speaker 1: remember that we discussed in a previous episode when we
Speaker 1: talked about Tornado Cat that thanks to these US government
Speaker 1: sanctions um on this mixing protocol, then now there there
Speaker 1: is now a very genuine concern um that protocol level
Speaker 1: censorship could be could be imposed on validators on Ethereum
Speaker 1: once it switches to proof of steak. And this is
Speaker 1: something that that you know, is yet to be resolved.
Speaker 1: So I think there's certainly there's certainly an argument. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of people have accused these
Speaker 1: Ethereum miners who have who voiced support for a proof
Speaker 1: of work fork, a lot of people have accused them
Speaker 1: of kind of greed and just saying, well, you know,
Speaker 1: you're just you're just going to mind this as you've
Speaker 1: got skin in the game, so yeah, exactly, you've got
Speaker 1: to mind something, so you're just gonna mind this and
Speaker 1: make some money off that instead. And yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you can you can understand why they're worried
Speaker 1: about their income, but there is a there is a
Speaker 1: genuine argument to be made about proof of work, you know,
Speaker 1: security over proof of steak, especially in light of these
Speaker 1: in life of these sanctions. So it's, um, that is
Speaker 1: something else to to be aware of as well to
Speaker 1: look out for, because yeah, if this proof of work
Speaker 1: fork does gain traction M, then it's native coin, which
Speaker 1: I think is now e W E T h W
Speaker 1: that could you know, we could eat holders could well
Speaker 1: receive eth W coins in the same way that Bitcoin
Speaker 1: holders received Bitcoin cash and Ethereum holders received Ethereum Classic
Speaker 1: after those forks. Now it's a it's a little bit
Speaker 1: more nuanced and that that's not a nailed on certainty. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that's that's something to look out for as
Speaker 1: as well. So, um, shall I before I think, you know,
Speaker 1: we've we've we've talked for kind of longer than I expected,
Speaker 1: which to be to be fair, always happens. But shall
Speaker 1: we shall we round it off by just talking about
Speaker 1: the surge verge purgeon splurge. Yeah, I think that's a
Speaker 1: that's a good, good sort of way to round off this.
Speaker 1: There's many Ethereum app Yeah, yeah, I think so. And
Speaker 1: obviously yeah, to to look ahead, are we going to go.
Speaker 1: Are we going to go in that order? Are we
Speaker 1: going to go in reverse? Oh? I think we'll go
Speaker 1: in order, because it kind of makes sense, doesn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think one. You know, one can't happen without you know,
Speaker 1: they have to happen in without a purge. There is
Speaker 1: no splurge exactly exactly. Um So, yes, as I said earlier,
Speaker 1: Vitalik himself for it is he claims that Ethereum will
Speaker 1: only be complete post merge. So the next stage after
Speaker 1: the merge, assuming that's all successful, is the surge. Now,
Speaker 1: in a nutshell, this is going to be the addition
Speaker 1: of shard change, this charding that we've talked about before
Speaker 1: as well. This will be kind of additional chains running
Speaker 1: alongside the Ethereum main chain, and that is going to
Speaker 1: bring that is expected to bring this holy grail of
Speaker 1: kind of faster transactions. Um. And the Italic has said,
Speaker 1: you know, he's targeting one hundred thousand transactions per second,
Speaker 1: which when you consider that Ethereum you know, currently proof
Speaker 1: of work, but not for much longer. When you consider
Speaker 1: that it's currently fifteen twenty transactions per second, that is,
Speaker 1: you know, that is a big, big increase and if
Speaker 1: they if they managed to do that, if they pull
Speaker 1: that off one thousand tps, you know, we're talking we're
Speaker 1: talking serious scalability, serious usability here for Ethereum. So that's
Speaker 1: the surge. Now, we we don't really know when this
Speaker 1: is going to happen, and I think probably it's it's
Speaker 1: not worth speculating on that until we're actually past the
Speaker 1: merge itself. But the surge is certainly the next stage.
Speaker 1: So the surge will bring kind of faster transactions, hence
Speaker 1: the name. The next one is going to be the Verge. Now,
Speaker 1: this is going to be sort of a number of
Speaker 1: upgrades to make it easier to become to become a
Speaker 1: validator on Ethereum. And obviously, as you know, the validators
Speaker 1: are the ones rather than you know, the validators on
Speaker 1: a proof of state network are those who you know,
Speaker 1: who stake ether and process transactions rather than miners. And
Speaker 1: obviously the more validators there are on a proof of
Speaker 1: state network, the more decentralized and therefore the more secure
Speaker 1: that network becomes. So the Verge is going to hopefully
Speaker 1: encourage that decentralization, make it easier for people to become
Speaker 1: validators on ethereum. So that's another that's another big big
Speaker 1: step after that is the one that everyone's worried about, obviously,
Speaker 1: the purge. This is when it turns violent and and bloody.
Speaker 1: Now this is basedically. The purge is kind of a
Speaker 1: purge of old network history. And again this is kind
Speaker 1: of aimed at decentralization and making it easier to become validators,
Speaker 1: because if you're if you're a validator, you have to
Speaker 1: basically store the network history of the blockchain that you're
Speaker 1: validating on. And as the network grows, that storing that
Speaker 1: network history, that the network history itself gets larger and
Speaker 1: larger obviously, and storing it becomes more of a problem.
Speaker 1: And what you don't want is a situation where it
Speaker 1: becomes so expensive you need so much storage space to
Speaker 1: store the whole history of the blockchain so that you can,
Speaker 1: you know, you can refer back to it to to
Speaker 1: to ensure transactions or balances or whatever are are what
Speaker 1: they claim to be. Um if it becomes too difficult
Speaker 1: to do that, then it'll lessen the number of validators
Speaker 1: who can participate on an ethereum. So the purge, I think,
Speaker 1: is basically looking to to sort of to slim that
Speaker 1: network history down to get rid of you know, have
Speaker 1: a bit of a spring clean if you like, and
Speaker 1: enable more people to store the store the network history.
Speaker 1: And then the splurge in in vitalis words, I quote
Speaker 1: this from a decrypt article, was talking about it all
Speaker 1: the other fun stuff, um which is a little which
Speaker 1: says it's all really Yeah. So the splurge, we don't
Speaker 1: really know too much about that, but that's going to
Speaker 1: be lots of smaller upgrades, you know, to to to
Speaker 1: kind of build on everything that the Merge, Surge, Virgin
Speaker 1: Purge have have have taken before. So um, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what we've that's what we've got to look forward to
Speaker 1: with with Ethereum. And I mean, as I've as I've
Speaker 1: said a few times, this is kind of this is
Speaker 1: kind of dependent on the success of the merge, and
Speaker 1: this is why we're all going to be waiting with
Speaker 1: bated breath to see how it all goes. Our Coin
Speaker 1: Bureau are going to be doing a rolling twenty four
Speaker 1: hour news sort of segment basically repeating the same thing
Speaker 1: over and over again in a slightly different format, waiting
Speaker 1: for something to happen on their YouTube channel as I
Speaker 1: sit there looking increasingly desperate and tired. Yeah, you've got to,
Speaker 1: You've got to. You've got to find new ways of
Speaker 1: describing vitalik Um. You know, he's he's he's a genius,
Speaker 1: or as some would say, you know, there's a lot,
Speaker 1: there's a lot riding on this and it's fortunately not
Speaker 1: although I can see that. Yes, and and we'll we're
Speaker 1: just gonna wake up, just gonna wait to see how
Speaker 1: it goes. It's like like Brexit or a U. S election.
Speaker 1: You kind of just wake up the next day and go,
Speaker 1: so what happened? Who won? The fight has gone on,
Speaker 1: the world has changed. Yes, I think I am actually
Speaker 1: I am going to be joining a sort of a
Speaker 1: live stream party with the folks from Crypto Slate among others. Um,
Speaker 1: so we're going to be kind of watching that in
Speaker 1: real time over zoom for from wherever. Are interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I'll do a little live live podcast. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that will be. Yeah, that'll be. That'll be
Speaker 1: an interesting thing to see a gathering of gathering of
Speaker 1: people to watch something happen on a computer screen. M
Speaker 1: I must say, I quite like the idea of I
Speaker 1: quite like the idea of of a sort of frenzies
Speaker 1: and increasingly desperate constant rolling news a bit like well,
Speaker 1: I guess, a bit like um, everything that's happening with
Speaker 1: the Queen, you know, where they desperately try and bring
Speaker 1: you new content or perhaps a better a better analogy
Speaker 1: transfer deadline day, you know, when you've got the guys
Speaker 1: on Sky Sports and it's sort of like we've got
Speaker 1: some big news no coming in from Peterborough. Um, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: well do you have a time for that? That's hard
Speaker 1: to sort of put it into the diary when it's
Speaker 1: kind of a little bit more up in the air
Speaker 1: with with you know, blockchain difficult, it's a little bit
Speaker 1: it's a little bit free form at the moment. But yeah,
Speaker 1: will it get will it get a bit more obvious
Speaker 1: when when we're closer to it? I think, so I guess,
Speaker 1: because yeah, I I guess as it gets closer, you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're dealing with kind of smaller numbers. This is
Speaker 1: like the this is Ethereum's millennium bug? Is it going
Speaker 1: to happen? Is it not? It's actually I've just refreshed it.
Speaker 1: So when we started talking less than an hour ago,
Speaker 1: it said one day twenty hours, it's now one day
Speaker 1: seventeen hours. So yeah, it's it's picking up basically. Basically,
Speaker 1: everyone keep your eyes open because blink and you know,
Speaker 1: blink and you might miss it. Um. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think to round it all off, this is this is
Speaker 1: going to be a really interesting and really consequential event.
Speaker 1: And even if you're not an Ethereum fan, or you're
Speaker 1: not an eighth holder, um, if you if you care
Speaker 1: about cryptocurrency, if you're interested in the industry in any way,
Speaker 1: shape or form, then this is something that you should
Speaker 1: be paying close attention to because it's going to have huge,
Speaker 1: huge consequences whatever happens. Um. And yeah, I for one
Speaker 1: fingers crossed that it's going to be going to be
Speaker 1: a big success because of course, because I'm certainly getting
Speaker 1: sick about sick of talking about it. Well, we've also
Speaker 1: that we've had a lot of a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of els in crypto at the moment, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people have lost a lot of money that
Speaker 1: you know, they may have you know, put put all
Speaker 1: of their life savings in. I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 1: people are in that similar boat with Ethereum. And for
Speaker 1: the benefit of everyone who is a holder and for
Speaker 1: the general benefit of crypto. We generally do hope this
Speaker 1: does go smoothly, and you know, it's the next step
Speaker 1: in in what could be an exciting era for for
Speaker 1: for crypto and you know all of the the other
Speaker 1: layer technologies that that are happening with a very true Mikey,
Speaker 1: I hadn't, I hadn't thought of it like that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the crypto community, we've we've we've had a hell of
Speaker 1: a year this year. We don't need, we really don't
Speaker 1: need another another thing going wrong. So yeah, but yeah,
Speaker 1: are we gonna are we gonna catch up later in
Speaker 1: this week and are you going to tell me what's
Speaker 1: happening later? Yeah, that's the plan, I think so, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we Well, let's see, we might get a
Speaker 1: chance to talk on Friday, or perhaps wait until the
Speaker 1: duster settled and kind of you know, maybe record something
Speaker 1: next week when when the mergers is a bit further
Speaker 1: in the rear view mirror and we can sort of
Speaker 1: digest what's what's happened. Um and hopefully hopefully, Mikey, that
Speaker 1: will be quite a boring episode because we'll just be
Speaker 1: rather than me sitting sitting there, it's like that. W Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all very boring, wasn't it. That's that's ideally what
Speaker 1: we want other than okay, guys, so is this the end?
Speaker 1: What do we do now? Just just fires in the
Speaker 1: background and everything. Yeah, let's hope, let's hope our next
Speaker 1: episode is really really boring. Thank you, Thank you very
Speaker 1: much everyone for listening. I hope and may the merge
Speaker 1: be with you, and let's hope you can join us.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's alyck bless you, and I hope you can
Speaker 1: join us next time. Yeah, I hope you will. Hope
Speaker 1: you can. That would be great if you're good. I
Speaker 1: hope it all goes well. All right, bye, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening to the coin Bureau podcast. If
Speaker 1: you'd like to learn more about cryptocurrency, you can visit
Speaker 1: our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com forward slash coin Bureau.
Speaker 1: You can also go to coin bureau dot com for
Speaker 1: loads more information about all things crypto. You can follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at coin beera or one word, and
Speaker 1: I'm also active on TikTok and Instagram as well. First
Speaker 1: of all, it's not thank you for listening. You're welcome
Speaker 1: for great content. Yeah, like this is free and they're
Speaker 1: learning about a fairly great topic in a non boring way.
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