Enjoy all the food and festivities today—in the meantime, let's keep things light with a quick read on 5 things to be grateful for around Ethereum this year 🦃
🎧 Latest Pod: The AI Rollup Talking onchain agents with Ejaaz Ahamadeen.
p.s. Thanks to Uniswap. Uniswap v4 is raising the stakes with a $15.5M bug bounty, the largest ever! Have what it takes to help secure the most anticipated codebase in DeFi? Learn more and join the bug hunt.
Sponsor: Cartesi — Tap into the power of Linux, the simple way to build in Web3.
As we gather this Thanksgiving, it’s the perfect time to reflect on what inspires gratitude—and for the Bankless community, Ethereum naturally stands out like a star.
Over the past year, Ethereum has made big new strides, from a game-changing upgrade for Layer 2s to solidifying its role in mainstream finance.
Yet, beyond the technology and economic potential, what truly sets Ethereum apart is the vision propelling it forward and the passionate community turning that vision into reality.
With that in mind, let’s take a moment to highlight 5 things worth being thankful for around the Ethereum ecosystem in 2024… 👇
1) Blobspace
In March 2024, Ethereum implemented the Dencun upgrade, introducing proto-danksharding (EIP-4844) and revolutionizing its scalability. Central to this innovation are “blobs,” a new type of transaction that allows L2 networks to post bundled data to Ethereum at a fraction of the previous costs.
The impact? Transaction fees on L2s have since plummeted, with 99% reductions on some networks. This massive cost decrease has opened the door to a wider range of users and applications, from DeFi to onchain gaming. As a result, Ethereum's vision of a truly accessible decentralized future feels closer than ever.
2) Pectra Preparation
Not content to rest on its laurels after the Dencun upgrade, the Ethereum community has already made considerable progress on its next major evolution, Pectra. Poised to be the most ambitious upgrade yet in Ethereum's history, Pectra will launch in early 2025 and implement a wide range of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) designed to enhance scalability, performance, and user experience across the network.
For example, EIP-2537 will improve validator efficiency and reduce gas costs, while EIP-7594 will roll out Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) to further optimize how L2s handle data. Another Pectra inclusion will be EIP-7702, which introduces a new transaction type allowing regular Ethereum accounts to temporarily transform into smart contract wallets.
This varied makeover advances the Surge phase of Ethereum's roadmap, a period focused on scaling the OG smart contract platform to over 100,000 transactions per second, and major leg work has gone into it in recent months. Bravo to everyone involved!
3) Ethereum ETFs
On July 22, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first spot Ethereum ETFs, with trading kicking off the next day. The arrival of these products from major players like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale has provided American investors with a regulated and accessible way to gain exposure to Ethereum without directly holding or managing ETH.
Furthermore, these ETFs are also also drawing interest from state governments. Michigan recently disclosed over $10 million in Ethereum ETF holdings, becoming the first state pension fund to invest in these products. The investment is a high-profile signal that ETH is maturing and mainstream institutions are increasingly seeing it as a viable long-term investment.
4) The Ethereum Community
Ethereum’s vibrant community is the heartbeat of its ecosystem, and this reality was on full display at this year’s Devcon 7 event in Bangkok where the depth and diversity of Ethereum’s contributors was highlighted once again. It's precisely this plurality that's brought us everything from fully onchain generative art on Art Blocks to Justin Drake's new ambitious Beam Chain proposal for reshaping Ethereum's consensus layer.
This “big tent” collective of builders and visionaries fighting for a better, decentralized future is what makes Ethereum more of a movement than a mere platform. That's the true magic here.
5) Vitalik
Cutting-edge research. Extensive writings on the future of Ethereum. Sizable donations to noble causes. Measured, inspirational discourse on social media. It’s certainly hard to think of another person who embodies excellence and humility quite like Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin.
At a time when speculative fervor is once again sweeping the crypto space, Vitalik has served as a beacon of clarity, urging the community to focus on Ethereum’s potential for meaningful and revolutionary innovations, not just money games. He inspires action, not despair, and continues to guide Ethereum forward as a platform for open collaboration and societal transformation. We're beyond lucky to have him.
Cartesi has announced the addition of a Validator Marketplace to its roadmap—a decentralized platform connecting dApp developers with validators. This marketplace aligns incentives within the ecosystem, boosts CTSI token utility, and offers a solution for unlocking the full potential of appchains, even beyond Cartesi.
AI and blockchain are converging, opening up a new frontier at the intersection of technology and autonomy.
Accordingly, in this latest episode of Bankless, we caught up with Ejaaz Ahamadeen again to explore the growing rise of crypto AI agents.
From Zerebro’s gaming innovations to ai16z’s ascent in the space, and the controversies fueling competition here, this convo dives deep into the all biggest recent AI happenings in crypto.
Listen in to learn more about the future of decentralization and productivity in a world increasingly led by agents! 👇
Not financial or tax advice. Bankless content is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time to time, we may add links in this newsletter to products we use. We may receive a commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless team holds crypto assets.
