Debunking Myths: Be in the Know

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Howdy, ya'll here for a good time or what? Get on down to Farmer Joe's content emporium. I hear they got some reeeeeal niiice newsletters down there.

What's that? They're stocking The Reveal? Well damn I'll have a slice all day long.

Top Tweets 🐣

1/ Mythbusting The Merge 🥊

The Ethereum Merge is coming, which is where the second biggest network in crypto is transitioning from proof of work to proof of stake.

You'll sometimes see these abbreviated to PoW and PoS, by the way.

When the news came out, we all got excited at the prospect of Amazon-style cheap and fast transactions but it looks like we jumped the gun.

Ethereum.org has debunked eight myths circling around the Twittersphere this week, so we're going to highlight the 3 main ones you'll care about 👇

Myth 1: Ethereum gas fees will reduce after The Merge

Nope. The network size remains the same so as long as people are all still using it at the same time, the capacity is just as limited.

Myth 2: Ethereum transactions will be faster after The Merge

Negative. On Layer 1, speeds will remain pretty much the same 😔

Myth 3: The Merge will result in downtime of the Ethereum blockchain

Actually, you are mistaken. The boffins made sure of no downtime so we can carry on losing money on NFTs without interruption.

Now go and surprise everyone with your new-found knowledge.

2/ To Royalty or Not to Royalty? 🤴

If you're quite on top of NFT chatter, you'll have seen a lot of hype about Sudoswap, the decentralised NFT marketplace, that has burst onto the scene and has the community divided.

Let's break down the main points in case you missed it.

What is it? 

An NFT marketplace with 0.05% transaction fees on sales and where creator royalties aren't enforced.

Interestingly, royalties aren't baked into the smart contract, so it's more of a choice of whether a marketplace will enforce them.

OpenSea's fees are 2.5% (50x higher) and creator royalties are enforced. So if those royalties are 5%, usually you're paying around 7.5% on any sale.

This is kind of the point of NFTs as it brings long term revenue to the creator.

The big dreams of the space were such that their talents will be rewarded rather than the middleman: Musicians, generative artists, photographers and animators could release a track and be paid for it down the line.

On the other hand, the free market and enterprising nature of crypto means that really – people would prefer not to pay royalties because they're basically all mini versions of Gordon Gecko that have evolved to photosynthesise from their computer screen.

Here you can see just how quickly it has gained market share over the last two months:

Zeneca, one of the industry's good guys, penned a longer thought piece which you can find here, and suggests royalties should be tipped by grateful degens as a social contract, which is a great take, albeit ambitious.

Let's see how this unfolds and how Sudoswap act when they've gained market share.

3/ Shitcoin Summer 💩

Last year, Cho Jae-weon has created a poop-to-earn bog which pays you for doing what you do best.

His invention merges your IRL activity with the blockchain, something all brands are racing to achieve at the moment, which might explain why this tweet was doing the rounds this week.

Looking proud as punch next to his disappointingly standard-issue toilet, the mad professor claimed people can earn Ggool token to buy physical goods.

However the token sadly only traded for a few months. Which exchange was it listed on? Well – Poocoin of course.

Never change, crypto, never change.

Introducing: 'Not Advice' 🧠

We are so excited to bring you our paid tier: Not Advice, that goes deeper than the fun, news-style content in this free issue.

What?A weekly newsletter where both we and our network of experts tell you what you should buy.

VCs, traders, collectors and Finance Guy are here to level you up.

Why?There's a need to distil down expert views without the usual shills that usually accompany views on Twitter. You'll also get access to our member-only Telegram group to network and share views, as well as entry to our monthly NFT giveaway.

When?Every Tuesday.

How much?Just $10 per month or $99 per year. So, for less than $2 per issue you'll be clued up and ahead of the game.

Where do I sign up?Head to The Reveal homepage and login, and you can upgrade from there.

See you keenos on Tuesday!

Reveal College 🎓

NFT Loans

We're trialling a new feature, where we explain a web3 concept in a simple and concise way. No BS, obviously.

This week, it's the rise of NFT loans: where you put up your loan as collateral and receive a loan in the form of crypto.

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In the real world, if you want to take out a loan, the lender would check your credit rating to see whether you're upstanding enough to be able to pay it back.

You are the collateral, in that sense.

In web3 where everyone is anonymous, a lender needs actual collateral so that if you don't pay it back, they keep that collateral and go on their merry way.

That could either be crypto itself, where you're wanting to leverage your existing funds, or in more recent times – an NFT.

NFTs are quite a stagnant asset, meaning you can't really do much with them even though they could be worth millions. Previously, you would've sold it it to actually extract value out of it.

This is now no longer the case, with platforms offering peer-to-peer loans for NFTs, connecting lenders and borrowers through a marketplace like NFTfi.

But – just like listing an NFT OpenSea and waiting for a buyer, this can be time consuming.

Another option is to use one of the complex tools offering lending pools or fractionalised NFTs like Drops DAO or JPEG'd, which can be a struggle to get up and running with and are not beginner friendly at all.

In the last few months, there has been a gold rush to release a simple, instant loan platform. Platforms like Zharta or my own one, Fluid, have designed their app to be easy to use and normie friendly, allowing users to get a loan in just a few clicks.

It should be a really interesting few months in this corner of crypto, with finance products like insurance and buy-now-pay-later potentially gaining more traction if NFTs become more and more part of our lives.

Shiny New Toys 👀

Casama is a seriously fun way to combine trading with your Telegram / Whatsapp group of other crypto fanatics.

Create a pool, and then vote on what trades you should all make with your pooled funds.

This way, when one person loses, you all lose, eliminating FOMO forever!

(This is not sponsored, if you're wondering.)

Confessions 🤫

A Digestif 🍸

Need a time machine, now.

That's all we've got time for this week, people of Las Revealas. Give us an appraisal below if you can be bothered, we'd appreciate it.