Ethereum Merge: What You Need to Know

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Read time: 6 mins (same as it takes Farokh to dump a new project on his followers)

It's almost the weekend but you won't enjoy it as you'll be sweating in your parents' basement watching the 8liens floor price.

This is The Reveal, where the fun side of crypto is pumped and dumped into your inbox every Friday. Let's get into it.

Top Tweets 🐣

What's going on in the world of crypto, through the eyes of Twitter .

1/ BAYC Scammers

ZachXBT pulled out some advanced level investigative work to identify two French scammers this week.

The prolific rug-pull and scam investigator went above and beyond this week, tracking down two young lads from Paris who managed to dupe five Ape holders into signing away their beloved NFTs thinking they are getting their NFTs animated, netting $2.5 million.

If there's one way to reel in the cultural elite that is the Ape community, it's making them believe they can flex something new.

The breadcrumbs left by the pair were of course Tornado Cash related, withdrawing funds to the address of mathys.eth.

This corresponded to the apt and hilarious Telegram username mtscam in the source code of the animation website, which then corresponded to Instagram and Twitter handles for Mathys and Camille.

As all good criminals do, the pair couldn't resist a celebrating at a local Parisian nightclub.

Oh, wait sorry no they didn't celebrate. They sat in a manky bar with a Grey Goose each looking glum as hell.

Cheer up fellas, you're rich!

Bravo to ZachXBT, who has documented the whole investigation in this Medium article. It's worth a read if you have the time.

Maybe next time, don't reply to someone in your DMs touting a free animator tool exclusively made for BAYC that requires you to connect your wallet?

2/ Dumbest Shit Ever

Mark Cuban goes pedal to the metal in his condemning of the bullshit that surrounds the metaverse.

In this interview with from his sun-filled compound, the crypto-friendly billionaire lamented the wide use of the buzzword and rather poetically described the buying of virtual real estate as:

Super, meta, immaculately dumb. 

It's a refreshing take and one that people should think about and challenge so that the space as a whole develops, instead of people being afraid to ask to look immaculately dumb.

Mind you, he also said that Voyager, a bankrupt Ponzi, was "as close to risk-free as you’re gonna get in the crypto" and is being sued as a result for shilling it to Dallas Mavericks fans – the team he owns.

Is the metaverse any multiplayer game, in which case we are decades into the metaverse? Does it have to have NFTs in that you can trade? Do virtual meetings count?

Let's put it to a vote:

3/ Ethereum Merge

The much anticipated and delayed Merge event is finally happening. ETH 2.0 is dropping on 15/16 September and we've all made it onto the whitelist.

Let's break it down:

1. Watch this high-budget explainer video to understand of the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake:

2. The merge will lead to ETH 2.0, a feature of Vitalik's OG roadmap.

3. It will bring faster and cheaper transactions, to the tune of $0.002 gas fees.

4. The above benefits could be at a cost of more centralised forces and incentives that would need to be addressed.

5. If you can stomach it, here's quite a complex thread about how you could profit from the unfolding events if you're 

Finance Guy 👨‍💼

“I want to invest in crypto but I don’t really know where to start. I don’t know anything about any of the coins and selecting one coin feels a lot like playing the lottery.”

If this sounds like you, then our 9 to 5 wage slave and DeFi expert is here to help. For heaven's sake though, do your own research as well.

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DeFi Pulse Index allows you to buy a basket of the most popular DeFi tokens and spread your risk.

In traditional finance markets, diversifying your portfolio is an unwritten rule. The boomer idol Warren Buffet himself has stated that for 90% of people, investing in an S&P 500 index fund is the best way to invest money.

The DeFi Pulse Index allows you to do this with crypto.

Currently the index's biggest holdings include Hall of Famers like Uniswap (35%), Aave (17%), Maker (11%) and Synthetix (10%). Using a wallet tracker like Zapper (which we featured last week) allows you to track the holdings in real time.

Basically, if you believe that DeFi is one of the killer use cases for crypto, then this is a great way to get exposure to a wide array of tokens.

Sure, you won't catch that 10,000x moonshot but you're simply not skilled enough to call that anyway. Sorry – mint an undoxxed NFT project instead if you want that thrill.

It's like how 88% of drivers think they're better than average at driving. Play the odds, leave it and check back in a few months.

To buy in, head here and swap ETH for DPI.

Stay tuned for next week when I'll investigate several early stage DeFi index funds.

Shiny New Toys 👀

Maindrop allows you to send an NFT to anyone with a phone number, e-mail or wallet address. If they don't have a wallet, just text them the NFT and they're able to unbox it in a really fun way.

Here's me sending my wife her birthday present:

These kinds of products are the ones that will take crypto mainstream, onboarding people with a fun and simple experience.

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

Mental Web3 🤯

This is usually a critical feature, and whilst this week's is really quite mental, it's fantastic.

CryptoDickbutts have seen some rock hard gains recently so must've had some budget to spend on the illustrious DickButts Ball 2022. 

A Digestif 🍸

Fin.

Cheers for reading. Hopefully you might have learned something, or at least be mildly entertained.

Thanks to Finance Guy and Jack for your ongoing support in getting the good gospel of The Reveal out there 🤘