Market Cap & Stablecoins - Ethereum's market cap of $300 billion secures $1 trillion in stablecoins, which raises concerns about proof of stake economics [1] - The reliance on centralized stablecoin companies to maintain the security of the "decentralized computer" is a deviation from the original whitepaper [1] Stablecoin Growth & Concentration - Tether added $20 billion on Tron this year, indicating significant stablecoin growth outside of Ethereum [1] - JPMorgan projects stablecoins to reach $500 billion by 2028, outpacing Ethereum's market cap growth [1] Regulatory & Dependency Risks - Circle and Tether might need to become Ethereum's largest holders to maintain chain functionality, creating a dependency that could be problematic for regulators [1]

Market Trends - Speculation typically seen in alternative cryptocurrencies ("alts") or on-chain activities is now prevalent in the stock market [1] - There are increasing avenues to express a bullish view on cryptocurrency [1] - Companies like Bitcoin treasury companies, Circle, Coinbase, and Robinhood are attracting significant speculative capital [1] - The speculative flows will eventually extend to tokens more rapidly than anticipated [1] Proof of Stake (PoS) & Layer 1 (L1) Chains - Recent discussions around Proof of Stake (PoS) are largely driven by the poor price performance of major Layer 1 (L1) chains such as NEAR, DOT, TIA, and APT [2] - The future direction for these chains involves reduced inflation, less emphasis on slashing, and a clear path towards profitability, including considering inflation as an expense [2] - The shift towards less inflation and profitability is considered a positive development for these chains [2]

Economic Security Myths Debunked - Delegation with slashing incentivizes careful operator selection, contrary to the belief that delegation negates security [1] - Relying solely on forking for security is impractical due to the time required, necessitating economic security for pre-fork finality [2] - Economic security can be automated through a market where users directly purchase security, addressing the issue of burnt slashed funds [3] - Economic security's failure to protect against liveness attacks stems from chain design flaws, not inherent limitations [4] Proof of Stake (PoS) vs Proof of Work (PoW) - Incentivizing stake is crucial, as committees alone resemble less secure systems like Libra [5] - While current PoS reward curves are arbitrary, market-driven security pricing can emerge through mechanisms like Stakesure [6] - PoW is essentially staking via mining devices, but PoS allows for burning or redistributing misbehaving miners' stake [7] Building Secure Chains - Security pricing is essential for resource provisioning and overall chain security [8] - Understanding economic security is crucial for building self-enforcing chains, contrasting with less robust committee chains [7]

Proof of Stake is the future of #blockchain. 🌱 It’s more energy-efficient and sustainable. ...