Chainlink is a decentralized network of oracles that provide external data and other off-chain resources to smart contracts. These oracles act as a bridge between the blockchain and the outside world, allowing smart contracts to access external data and interact with off-chain resources.

Smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code. They are often used to automate the execution of certain tasks or to facilitate the exchange of assets. However, they are limited in their capabilities because they can only operate within the constraints of the blockchain and can only access data that is stored on-chain. This is where oracles come in.

Oracles provide smart contracts with access to external data and other off-chain resources, allowing them to be more useful and practical for a wide range of applications. For example, a smart contract could be used to automatically pay out insurance claims when certain conditions are met, such as the weather reaching a certain temperature or a sports team winning a game. Oracles can provide the smart contract with the necessary external data, such as weather data or sports scores, to allow it to execute the terms of the contract.

Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that allows multiple oracles to securely provide external data and other off-chain resources to smart contracts. It uses a decentralized network of nodes to ensure the integrity and reliability of the data being provided to the smart contracts. This ensures that the smart contracts can trust the data being provided to them and can execute accurately based on that data.

Overall, Chainlink enables smart contracts to interact with real-world data, events, and other off-chain systems, making them more useful and practical for a wide range of applications.

###### Founders
Chainlink was founded by Sergey Nazarov and Steve Ellis. It was initially funded through a seed funding round, which included investments from blockchain investment firms such as Fenbushi Capital, Multicoin Capital, and Bain Capital Ventures. The company has also raised funds through the sale of its native token, LINK, which is used to pay node operators for the provision of external data and other off-chain resources to smart contracts on the Chainlink network.

What is Chainlink?

When asking the question “What is Bitcoin” you raise a question that could take several thousands of pages to answer, since it is more of a philosophical question that derives from the statement “What is money?”. 

Due to the above statement, this text will focus more on the technical aspect of “What is Bitcoin” and how it works. 

Bitcoin was created theoretically as a whitepaper in 2008 by a person or a group, the alias the writer or writers went by is Satoshi Nakamoto. After this paper was launched, a group of developers called “the core developer” started to create this concept of Bitcoin that was laid out by Satohis Nakamoto in the nine page whitepaper and on January 1:th, the first block on the Bitcoin blockchain was minted, the so called “Genesis block”. 

###### How does it work?
The intention of the creation of Bitcoin was to make it a distributed digital cash system that solves the dublespent problem without using a third-party intermediary; it succeeds with this due to the use of a public blockchain as well as a mechanism for aligning consensus regarding the transactions that occur within the network.  

###### Blockchain
A public blockchain can be described as the following: an open, decentralized, incorruptible database. So, in the context of Bitcoin the following illustration can be made. Instead of a bank keeping track of the transactions via their own private ledger, the blockchain contains a ledger that is visible and open for everyone, hence no need for a third-party intermediary, such as a bank, to keep things in order. The bitcoin blockchain is built in a non-hierarchical way, in other words, there is no central unit that governs all the entities. In a blockchain database-structure all the entities are connected to each other, which makes it possible to attain decentralization.

###### Consensus
So, how does a Bitcoin transaction work and how is it different from a regular fiat transaction that is integrated into the legacy system? First and foremost, a Bitcoin transaction occurs peer to peer, while a fiat transaction is conducted via several intermediaries, such as issuing banks, card schemes, acquiring banks and clearing houses, to name a few. The infrastructure needed to conduct a Bitcoin transaction is a Bitcoin wallet for the sender as well as for the recipient. The Bitcoin network takes care of the rest, hence, peer to peer and no central intermediaries. To gain an understanding on what this actually means, it could be helpful to illustrate how a Bitcoin transaction is conducted and include the different steps until it reaches consensus and final settlement.

In order for a Bitcoin transaction to be approved, it needs to reach consensus within the network, a consensus regarding that the transaction is true or that it is false. This is reached when over 50 percent of the nodes within the networks agree that the transaction is true. Once a transaction has reached consensus it is put into the blockchain, this is when a blockchain transaction has been settled.

So, for you as a user, the Bitcoin transaction could be illustrated as follows: You receive the recipient's public wallet address and start the transaction by using your Bitcoin wallet, the transaction is put into the network and starts to propagate throughout all of the nodes until it reaches consensus of 51%. After it has reached consensus, the transaction is put into the blockchain and the transaction is settled and arrives in the recipient's wallet.

###### Monetary premium 
Bitcoin is built with blockchain technology, which makes it possible to attain a decentralized monetary system that lives without third-party intermediaries, such as banks.
Why is this powerful? Without dwelling down into economics, the concept of Bitcoin in general is an incredible innovation. Bitcoin enables us to have a monetary premium that is detached from all the central authority i.e., banks, politicians etc. To clarify, Bitcoin is not detached from regulation, but it is impossible for central authorities to inflate your Bitcoin, or to keep you from accessing it. This is a powerful freedom tool for people living under financial oppression. The enablement of real self-sovereignty for your finances is a key for enabling a more humane future for people that are living under authoritarian regimes, as well as hyper-inflation, bank runs and other financial related disasters. This is why Bitcoin is so powerful for many people and perceived as a freedom technology.

What is Bitcoin?

**NFT (non fungible token)**

What is the hype around NFTs, __what is it, how does it work and is the hype  eligible?__ 

__Let’s start with the question what it is:__ NFT is essentially a proof of ownership,  that’s it, that is al it is really, it can proof ownership on both digital assets as well as  real world assets. Why is this so important? The reason for why this technology has a  huge potential for disruption is that it enables the user as well as the creator to store  your own property rights and to prove independent ownership of your created or  bought asset.  

The biggest use of NFTs today is in the digital content realm. There are several reasons for this, one reason is that the current platform environment is not creator  centric. Creators who publish their creations generally does it on a centralized platforms i.e a social network. these platforms need to attract visitors in order to monetize through ads. Content creators that are using centralized platforms see their  profits and earning potential swallowed. The artist or creator get exposure in return,  but that does not cut it or pays the bills and is very hard to depend on when it comes  to have a secure income.

However, NFTs power a completely new creator economy where creators don't hand  ownership of their content over to the platforms they use to publish it on. When you  create a NFT the ownership is included into the content itself. 

Another reason for why the digital realm is the one area that are booming first, is  because it is low hanging fruit and directly connected to the technology. To create a  Jpeg picture as an NFT is not that hard, to integrate NFT technology in real world  asset on the other hand is harder, and it is especially harder to gain adoption in. 

__How does it work?__ NFT are Non fungible tokens, this means that you cannot create a  copy of that specific token, each token is unique. This is not the case for Ether (Ethereum) which is fungible, that means that each Ether is the same and you can  create more of that token. NFTs are minted (created) through smart contracts that  assigns ownership, each NFT are connected and linked to one specific Ethereum  address. The NFT is essentially connected to the transaction into the smart contract that are creating the NFT. That transaction ID is the one thing that proofs the  authentication of your NFT. You can easily prove that you have the original the same  way that you can show proof that you have Ether in your wallet. So, the proof of  originality is the private key of the creator, and if you buy that certain NFT your proof  of ownership is the public key connected to the first transaction that are linked to the  minting of that NFT. 

__So, is the hype eligible?__ I would say yes and here is why: First we must acknowledge that the NFT space today may be a huge bubble and short term it could collapse, but  if we look at it from a long-term perspective, the possibilities are enormous.

Here are some examples:  
In the digital realm
- Digital art 
- Gifs 
- Tweets 
- Music 
- Videos 

Real world Items 
- Tickets 
- Real world art 
- Invoices 
- Legal documents 
- Ownership to a house and other expensive assets.

As you can see, there are a lot of different areas that this technology could affect in a  positive way and these are only a few examples. The technology eliminates the  middleman, gives you the possibility to truly own digital assets, as well as create a  smoother interaction with real world assets.

What is NFT?

Proof of stake is basically a consensus algorithm that helps to function the blockchain. The proof of stake network outlines itself with a bunch of different nodes, each node contains acertain amount of the token that the blockchain consists of. So, what is a node you may ask? A node is a computer on the network that has a complete copy of the entire blockchain. A blockchain contains of several different nodes that act as validators for the transactions. So, for instance, a transaction occurs, that transaction propagates to all the different nodes until a
consensus are made.

###### “I have heard about mining and proof of work, what is that and is there any different from proof of stake?” 
The difference between proof of work and proof of stake is that in proof of work the miners validate the block by mining or (guessing the nonce) to enable a new block to be minted. “Nonce you say, what is that?” A nonce is often referred to as the “cryptographic puzzle” that needs to be solved in order to mine crypto that use Proof of work as a consensus algorithm. If we take bitcoin mining for example, the miners are guessing an extremely large number, if you are guessing the right one, you will be rewarded by the block reward, hence you get new bitcoins.

However, in the proof of stake system the validation is distributed randomly to one of the nodes in the network, which must validate the transaction. You basically chose where the next block should be added, the consensus is at the longest chain and that is also where you should put the block in order to participate accordingly. If the transaction does not confer with what the consensus is in the network, that nodes staked tokens will be slashed, this creates an economic incentive for the user that has staked his/hers crypto to act in a non-malicious way, this is also called crypto economic security.

Each time your node gets to validate, you will gain the block reward for that block which contains tokens of that specific chain, if we take Ethereum as an example, you will get your reward in Ether. Your mining power or the amount of validation you will be eligible for, will correlate with how many nodes you run, so for instance if you are running 4% of the nodes in the network, you will be entitled to 4% of the validations. This is since all the validations are distributed randomly.

What is Proof of Stake & Proof of Work

*This text is heavily influenced by a twitter thread of Chris Dixon.*

__Web 1 arose around 1990-2005__ 

__Web 2 where around 2005-2021__
The services are centralized and accrued by a few corporations that  essentially own the internet, hence the internet has lost its freedom capability.

We are now at the beginning of the Web 3 era, which combines the decentralized, community governed ethos of Web 1 (Freedom) with the advanced, modern functionality of Web 2. 

*“Web 3 is the internet owned by the builders and users, orchestrated with tokens.”* 

__Now let’s talk about Web 3.__  
In Web 3, ownership and control is decentralized. Users and builders can own pieces of internet services by owning tokens, both non-fungible (NFTs) and fungible like ETH. What is a token? A token, if it is a fungible one is essentially another word for a cryptocurrency. A token can inherit
different characteristics depending on the token. For instance, it could be  voting power in a DAO if it is a governance token, or it could be staked to help run the consensus on the blockchain. Tokens in a DAO align network participants to work together toward a common goal — the growth of the network and the appreciation of the token. This is very similar to having options in a company.

NFT is a technology that is crucial for holding your own data. NFT gives us the rights to own things on the internet, if you are interested in how NFTs works, I have another text that goes in more deeply on that. But briefly NFTs are proof of ownership and can be everything from, art, music, games, code, credentials, governance right, or whatever you may come up with. 

This fixes one core problem of centralized networks, where the value is accumulated by one company, and the company ends up fighting its own users and partners. Thus, it creates a more inclusive internet that makes it harder for a few actors to have a “monopoly like” ownership of either data or the information distribution.

###### Why decentralization matters 
Centralization has created broader societal tensions, which we see in the debates over subjects like fake news, state sponsored bots, “deplatforming” of users, EU privacy laws, and algorithmic biases. These debates will probably only intensify in the coming years. Due to the increased power structure of these big corporations that have a “monopoly” of the internet  space.

Decentralization is a commonly misunderstood concept. For example, it is sometimes said that the reason crypto network advocates favor decentralization is to resist government censorship, or because of libertarian political views. These are not the main reasons  decentralization is important in this context.  

One important factor of decentralization is the instant feedback loops, when you have a  large community that governs the functionality of the product, you will have instant feedback loops if the feature or functionality you created is feasible or not, which enables you to test several ideas much faster, this sparks innovation.  

The problem with centralized platforms is that they look you up and when you arrive at the top of the innovation s-curve (where we are today), development gets more stringent. The focus then shifts to extracting data from users and competing with complements over audiences and profits. In other words, focus shifts from creating more interesting products to just have small incremental improvements and focus lies instead on extracting value and data from the existing customers in order to accumulate even more value from them.

Therefore, we need decentralization and web 3. We need to continue to innovate new ways to enrich the rights of people, so people gain freedom of their own property, data and life. 


What is Web3

If you have been living inside the crypto hype you probably have heard about yield farming, but what is it and how does it work? Yield farming is, in its essence, that you provide  liquidity to a defi protocol in return for yield.

A protocol is often referred to as an application that are built on top of a smart contract  platform, Ethereum is the most common one to use. Ethereum is the infrastructure that enables the protocols to be built on top of it. To illustrate what this really is we can use internet as an example, Ethereum is the internet and protocols are the websites with the UI built on top of it.

The terminology “yield farming” is more related to those who actively seek out the highest yield in different protocols. So, if for instance you just provide liquidity to a protocol without the notion of seeking the highest yield you would not necessarily be farming, but the terminology here is not that important. What's most important here is to illustrate how it works.

To close in on the functionality, the most promising way is to start with an example, let’s dig  deeper into a decentralized exchange. Providing liquidity to a pool inside a decentralized  exchange such as Uniswap, is one example of yield farming. You as the yield farmer provide liquidity by deposit two tokens — Token A and Token B and in return you collect a proportion of the fees paid by users who use that pool to swap between tokens. Your returns are calculated off the percentage of the pool that your deposit makes up. If your deposit makes up 1% of the pool’s depth, you are eligible to collect 1% of the total fees generated by that pool. To be clear every transaction has a small transaction fee attached to them. However, the  smaller the pool, the higher the reward but also, the higher the risk. Talking about risks, what are they? One of the more prominent risks with Yield farming is impermanent loss.

What is Impermanent loss? If we take the pool of Ethereum and DAI for an example, DAI is a  stablecoin, so its value is pegged to a fiat currency, in this example the US dollar, so the value should hover around parity with it. But Ethereum has unlimited upside potential as well as downside. As Ethereum appreciates in value, the AMM (automated market maker) or in the example above, a decentralized exchange, adjusts the ratio of the depositor’s two assets to ensure that the value of the two remains constant. It is important that the two assets in the pool have equal value. This is where impermanent loss can occur.

Okay, how can we explain this in a way that makes it “easy” to understand? I think the best  way is to provide an example and illustrate it with numbers. If you choose to yield farm by  supplying liquidity to a pool you are entitled to support a ration of 50/50 for booth of the currencies inside of that pool. If for example you provide 1 ETH and 100 DAI, (1 ETH is  worth 100$ and 1 DAI is worth 1$). Let say that the pool has 1000$ in total liquidity, you  will have 10% of the share, you will then be eligible to withdraw 10% of the pool. The ratio of 50/50 is always matched in the pool. If the price of ETH increases by 100%, now worth $200 per ETH, the value of the pool would increase accordingly. The liquidity pool would have changed to 7.071 ETH and 1,414.21 DAI= 2828$. This is because the ratio of the pool has changed, it is no longer 50/50, which affected the price of ETH. Here  will arbitrageurs act to buy some cheap ETH and govern the pool so it contains its 50/50 value. 

Since you, the liquidity provider has a 10% share of the liquidity pool, you can withdraw  0.7071 ETH and 141 DAI which equals $282. However, if you simply had held your 1 ETH and 100 DAI, they would be worth $300. The difference between the two, $18, is the  amount of impermanent loss that you would have experienced. A greater change in the  ratio of the pool will result in a larger amount of impermanent loss.

So in conclusion, Yield farming can be risky, but it can also generate a high interest on  your money, if you are conscious. 

What is yield farming

Polkadot was founded in late 2016 and did their ICO (initial coin offering) 2017. The project was founded by Gawin Wood, co-founder and CTO of Ethereum with the vision of building a sharded version of Ethereum. By sharded version he meant that he believed in a split version of the base chain, which splits the chains in multiple shards, this makes it much more scalable. 

###### How does it work?
The best way to describe Polkadot is to use the term “internet of blockchains”. Polkadot or “DOT” in short is a smart contract platform that enables you to build applications on top of it, so called “dapps” or decentralized applications. Polkadot, the currency, has two main functions, it acts as a governance token (best described as a share in a company), but with a more decentralized voting structure). You can also stake the token in order to help contribute to the consensus within the network and validate transactions.

In its essence, Polkadot is very similar to Ethereum from an outside perspective since it also provides a smart contract platform, but there are, however, key differences between Ethereum and Polkadot that differentiates them in design. 

What does “Internet of blockchains” mean? Well, the internet is the medium that connects all of our online presence and enables information/data, and communication facilities. It is a global network of computers that connects all websites/applications that are built on top of it. 

A public blockchain sovereign state that lives by itself, even if it uses the internet to communicate, it is not dependent on the internet to run. One blockchain does not necessarily talk to another blockchain, for instance, the Bitcoin blockchain is not linked or interoptible with the Ethereum blockchain. This is what Polkadot aims to contribute with, a platform that enables interoperability between blockchains. Via the Polkadot platform, applications that are built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, can talk with applications that are built on top of the Ethereum network without a third party intermediary. It links the blockchains together, like the internet does with computers. 

###### Consensus
In all public blockchains there is a mechanism to obtain consensus within the network, this is called the consensus algorithm. The two most common consensus algorithms are proof of work (POW)  and proof of stake (POS). The Polkadot network is using the same consensus algorithm as Ethereum does, namely POS. However, there are some changes to the structure of the POS system that Polkadot uses compared with the one that Ethereum uses.

Polkadot utilizes a consensus algorithm that is called nominated proof of stake or NPOS in short. POS and NPOS are very similar but the validation process differs. In a regular POS system you get to validate transactions if you operate a node in the system, if you own 1 percent of the nodes you are eligible to validate 1 percent of the transaction etc. In a NPOS system you elect so-called nominators that you trust will validate the transaction in a correct manner, you trust this nominator so much that you put your stake at risk for this nominator. You can describe NPOs like representative democracy, the population electing parties that they trust will make the right decisions. One key difference to take away from this metaphor is that in a NPOS system all the actions and transactions happen on-chain, which makes it open for everyone to verify, which makes it impossible to corrupt. Another safety measure of NPOS is that if you elect a bad actor as a nominator, you can lose your staked money.

What is Polkadot?

Cardano is a decentralized public blockchain and cryptocurrency project that is focused on providing a more secure and scalable platform for the development and execution of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps). It was founded in 2017 by Charles Hoskinson, one of the co-founders of Ethereum.

Like Ethereum, Cardano is a smart contract platform that allows developers to build and deploy DApps on its network. However, there are some key differences between the two platforms:

Cardano has a multi-layer architecture that separates the settlement layer (which handles the transfer of value) from the computation layer (which handles the execution of smart contracts and DApps). This separation is intended to improve the scalability and interoperability of the platform. Ethereum, on the other hand, has a single-layer architecture that combines the settlement and computation layers. 

The development of Cardano is guided by a scientific philosophy, with a strong emphasis on research and peer review. Ethereum, on the other hand, has a more agile development approach that allows for faster iteration and deployment of new features.

###### Consensus
Cardano uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm called Ouroboros, which is designed to be more energy-efficient and secure than proof-of-work (PoW) algorithms like the one used by Bitcoin. Ouroboros allows network participants (called "validators") to stake their Ada tokens and participate in the consensus process by validating blocks of transactions. Validators who act honestly and follow the protocol rules are rewarded with a share of the transaction fees and a small amount of new Ada.

What is Cardano?

###### TLDR

- Ethereum will switch consensus mechanism to Proof of Stake
- Will be 99,95% more energy efficient
- Issuance rate will be zero to less

###### Explanation:
The Merge is upon us, and the last test net is finally live and working, this means that we now have a date for The Merge. The launch date is set up to be around 15-16:th of September this year.

The Merge of the main chain with the beacon chain, or the upgrade from Ethereum 1.0 to Ethereum 2.0 if you will, is one of the biggest things that have ever happen to Ethereum. For some people this could be a bit confusing, why is It called The Merge and what will happen to Ethereum? I will try to explain in short what The Merge means, a couple of misconceptions and why this is positive thing for Ethereum.

To start, why is it called The Merge? The reason that this upgrade is called “The Merge” is that this event contains a merger of two blockchains, the execution chain and the consensus chain. Ethereum today consist of the execution chain with a built-in consensus mechanism Proof of Work.

The Merge will change Ethereum’s consensus mechanism to Proof of stake, of you struggle to understand the difference between these two [learn more here](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gustav-birgersson-38b285158_proof-of-stake-activity-6849615381238202368-RgKP?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop). 

The proof of stake chain is already live and is called the consensus chain or (Beacon chain). The Ethereum upgrade will actively merge the mainchain of Ethereum that we now today, with all the applications built upon (Execution chain), with the new consensus chain. In this way will Ethereum switch consensus mechanism from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake.   

So, now you hopefully have a better understanding of why it is called The Merge, it will in short upgrade the consensus mechanism from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. 

So, how will this effect Ethereum? First, I will write down some misconceptions of what this upgrade will not do to set your expectations right. 

###### Misconceptions:

*“We need Ethereum to upgrade since it will lower the gas fees”*

This is unfortunately false, the change to proof of stake will not effect the gas fees. To lower the gas fees, we need to scale the blockchain via a layer 2 scaling solution or scaling the base layer via sharding. 

[*Read more about scaling blockchains here*](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gustav-birgersson-38b285158_scaling-blockchains-activity-6930123428247007232-WL_S?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop)

*-“All the staked ETH will be available and sold at once which will crash the network as well as the market”*

This is not true, when The Merge happens, you will not be able to withdraw your staked Ether, you will have to wait until the Shanghai upgrade goes live. Even then all the validators cannot withdraw their stake at once. The protocol is set so that only six validators can withdraw every 6.4 minutes which gives it a maximum of 1350 validator nodes each day.

If the maximum is reach it will effectively only be around 43,200 ether of 10 million ETH staked, so it will not crash the network. 43,200 ETH in sell pressure will not crash the market since the total circulation of Ethereum are around 120 million. 

*-“After The Merge all the transactions conducted on Ethereum will be much faster.”*

In the Proof of Work system Ethereum issued a new block every 13,3 seconds. After The Merge in the Proof of Stake system new blocks will be issued exactly every 12 seconds. Sure, this is faster, around 10% faster, but it is highly unlikely that it will be noticed by the users. To increase transaction throughput (transaction speed) we will have to do the same efforts as we must do in order to lower gas fees, using blockchain scaling solutions. 

###### How will switch to Proof of Stake really effect Ethereum?

- More sustainable

First and foremost, after the switch from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake, Ethereum will be way more energy efficient. No matter your view on the energy consumed via Proof of Work, Proof of Stake are objectively more energy efficient. 
Ethereum’s energy consumption will be reduced by ¬~ 99,95%, so Ethereum will use much less carbon to maintain its security. 

- Issuance rate

One big change that will happen to Ethereum after the Merge is the issuance rate of new ETH. The reason for new issuance of the ETH token is to keep miners incentivized to validate new transactions, they need to be paid. This is done by issuing new ETH. In a proof of Stake system, you still need to pay stakers for creating an incentive for them to validate transactions. 
However, these rewards differ between a Proof of Work system to a Proof of Stake system, especially when it comes to issuance. Note, this is in the context of Ethereum, other Proof of Stake system or Proof of Work system could differ. 

I have outlined below how much issuance that are made pre-merge compared to post-merge. 

Mining rewards ~13,000 ETH/day pre-merge
Staking rewards ~1,600 ETH/day pre-merge
Issuance of new Ethereum pre merge are ~ 14,600 ETH/day. 

After The Merge all the mining rewards will be eliminated which leads to an issuance rate of: 

Staking rewards ~1,600 ETH/day post-merge.

This will effectively drop new ETH issuance by approximately 90%. 

Okay, but how is this happening and why do you not need to issue as much ETH to keep the network secure in a Proof of Stake system? 
Mining in a Proof of Work system is an economically intensive activity, to participate you need to pay a big chunk of energy cost, you also need to purchase expensive mining equipment to be able to participate in this activity.

Due to these economically intensive actions, to keep incentivize miners to secure the system the network needs to pay them a certain percentage that exceeds the money they have invested in the mining activity. In a Proof of Stake system, you still need to pay the validators (stakers) “salary” for their work of securing the network and running the nodes. However, in a Proof of Stake system, the operational cost is dramatically lower, which lower the demand for issuance, 

In addition to the lower issuance that will come with The Merge, Ethereum implemented a new upgrade in the London hard fork or (EIP-1559) in August last year. This upgrade was implemented to enable more predictability when it comes to gas fees. However, this upgrade also enables “the burn” of ETH, so for every transaction that is conducted in the Ethereum network a certain percentage of the transaction fees are getting burned. So, what has this to do with The Merge, why is this important to know? 

After The Merge, with an average gas price of at least 16 gwei (which is not an extreme number of activity), at least 1,600 ETH is burned every day, which effectively brings net ETH inflation to zero or less.

###### Take aways:
 - New consensus mechanism: Proof of Stake
 - 99,95% more energy efficient
 - Zero inflation (could even be deflationary)

So, mark September 15/16:th in your calendar and wait for The Merge!


The Merge of Ethereum 

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain and smart contract platform on which the cryptocurrency Ether (ETH, Ξ) runs. It is the second largest blockchain in terms of market capitalization, only Bitcoin surpasses it. 
While Bitcoin has a higher market capitalization, The Ethereum blockchain is significantly different from the Bitcoin blockchain in a number of ways. Where Bitcoin is ultimately deflationary in nature when all the coins are mined. Bitcoin operates with a decreasing mining rate, set to be capped at 21 000 000 BTC, Ethereum has no such limit. Instead, to maintain the value and protect it from inflation, Ethereum ‘burns’ tokens as a part of the mining process.

But there is more to Ethereum, it is also a platform for smart contracts, which enables the creation of decentralized applications. These are applications that are built directly on the blockchain, using the code language Solidity. Decentralized applications, or dApps, can have a wide variety of shapes, forms and purposes. One of these purposes is Decentralized Finance (DeFi), which is a system that is   replicating the financial instruments that banks use to grow their funds, but decentralized, without a central authority. One such example is peer-to-peer loans, where users can lend and borrow money over a protocol, without an intermediary bank charging fees.

Other examples of dApps are Crypto Kitties, a game where a user can breed, care for and trade unique kitten-NFTs. These NFTs can be sold at different NFT-collectibles trading platforms i.e OpenSea.; and multiple gambling options.

Ethereum was conceived as a proof-of-work blockchain, similar to Bitcoin. But the high energy consumption in the proof-of-work-model has motivated a move to a proof-of-stake-model by merging the main chain with the proof-of-stake compatible chain  “Beacon chain”. This has made Ethereum 99.9% more energy efficient.

Ethereum is and promises to be part of the future of crypto by leveraging functionality with a wide range of use cases and may very well be the foundational infrastructure to the emerging Web3 generation.

What is Ethereum?

In the context of cryptocurrency, a private key is a secret, alphanumeric password that is used to access and spend a cryptocurrency. It is generated randomly when a cryptocurrency wallet is created, and it is stored in the wallet file. The private key is used to generate a digital signature that is required to authorize the spending of the cryptocurrency.

A public key, on the other hand, is a cryptographic code that is derived from a private key. It is used to receive cryptocurrencies, and it can be shared publicly without compromising the security of the private key.

In summary, a private key is used to access and spend a cryptocurrency, while a public key is used to receive it. It is important to keep your private key secret and secure, as anyone who has access to it can use it to spend your cryptocurrencies.

A common metaphor for describing Private and Public keys is by comparing it to your email address. Your email password is your private key, since it enables you to send and receive emails. Your email address is your Public key since it enables you to receive and enables other people to send you messages.

What are public and private keys?

What is a smart contract? Well, a smart contract is in its essence a self-executing contract that executes when a certain criterion is fulfilled, it is fully built on the blockchain which gives it the property of being transparent as well as incorruptible (if audited thoroughly). 

Okay, so let's break this down a bit shall we, what does a self-executing contract really mean, why is it incorruptible and where could these contracts be used? 

By self-executing, it means that the contract will execute the agreement once the correct criterion is fulfilled, by itself, without any human interaction. A great comparison is the vending machine, with a vending machine, you can purchase a coke without a cashier, by putting in the right amount of money into the machine. A smart contract works in a similar way but with the difference of being digital and can be utilized in more areas than purchasing snacks. 

So, now when you know what self-executing means in the context of a smart contract, how is it incorruptible? By building the contract on a public blockchain it is fully transparent to anyone. For one individual to change the contract, he or she will need to reach consensus within the whole network for it to be executed. The contract is pre coded with a certain action that will execute when the correct criterion is fulfilled, these criterions will not change without reaching consensus throughout the whole network. So, if you are utilizing a smart contract as an intermediary, you could rest assured that the contract will act on the action that it is set out to do. If a change occurs due to a shift in consensus (reaching over 50% agreement in the network) the change will be visible due to the public blockchain, this means that you cannot do anything without the other contracting actor knowing. 

Okay, so now you know a bit more of what a smart contract is, but how can this innovation be utilized and used in our everyday life and why would you use a smart contract over a regular contract? One perk of using a smart contract over a regular contract, is that a smart contract has an automatic execution. That means that it can execute without any human interaction. With the inherent nature of being incorruptible, smart contracts can effectives and disrupt a range of different industries, especially those industries that are dependent on third party intermediaries. 

With smart contracts you can essentially build the same things that you can build with a regular computer program, the difference is that you could execute action with an incorruptible and transparent contract. This is key for building more sensitive products, like financial protocols like lending/borrowing, exchanges, and insurances. With the technology of a smart contract, these services could be utilized autonomously and without human interaction. 

What is a smart contract?

For many, the volatility of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum makes it repelling to store your wealth in or use as a medium of exchange in your everyday life. Imagine paying 10,000 Bitcoin for two large pizzas, and then realize that twelve years later those pizzas cost you around 300 million USD in alternative cost of just storing your Bitcoin. Or imagine being a merchant that accepts crypto as a payment method, you need to cover all of your expenses and cannot afford to accept a volatile currency, since this would expose you to a significant currency risk. Here is where a stablecoin fills the gap, since the price of a stablecoin is stable and non volatile. 

So, what is a stablecoin? In short, a stable coin is a cryptocurrencies that is pegged to a stable asset. This is usually some kind of fiat currency or monetary metal as gold. The price of the stablecoin correlates with an underlying asset. As for instance, a USD pegged stable coin has a ratio of 1/1 with the USD i.e. one stablecoin has (almost) the same price as one USD. This makes stablecoins’ price predictable and thus preferable cryptocurrency for everyday transactions. 

##### How does it work? 

As mentioned above, a stablecoin is different from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum since it´s value is dependent on the underlying asset that it´s pegged against. 
With that said, a stablecoin is different from regular Fiat currencies like the dollar since it exists on a public blockchain. So, a stablecoin has the same characteristics as a cryptocurrency i.e. immutable, peer to peer and are transactional without a third party intermediary, but have the price stability connected to the underlying asset. 

##### Why does it have value?

So, with the above explanation, why is stablecoins important and does it have value? 
First, since stablecoins has the same characteristics as Bitcoin and Ethereum in the case that it is immutable, decentralized and transactional without a third party intermediary, these currencies bring great value for people that are living under cruel financial circumstances, i.e. hyperinflation, bank corruption etc. For them to get hold of a stable fiat currency like the dollar or euro but via crypto transactions, creates great value. 

Apart from being a great store of value or means of exchange for people that live under financial oppression, a stablecoin could be used for more situations. One use case that is very common within the crypto space, is to use stablecoins in DeFi protocols (insert link to DeFi). Since the value of a stablecoin is stable and the rates in DeFi often are better than in the regular financial landscape, this use case has been very attractive for people that are familiar with the crypto landscape. 

##### Different type of stablecoins

For a stablecoin to be pegged against a stable asset, it needs to be backed by another type of asset, this could be Fiat, gold, crypto or other financial assets. This can be done in different ways, you can either have off-chain collateral or on-chain collateral, there is also another type that is called algorithmic stablecoins, these types is be explained below. 

##### Off-chain

An off-chain collateralized stablecoin holds its collateral in separate custody i.e. not on the blockchain, it could be a bank account or physical assets like gold. So for instance, if the market capitalization of that stablecoin is €50 000, the company that issues that stable coin, needs to hold assets worth €50 000 in assets. Examples of Stablecoins that are off-chain collateralized are USDT(Tether) or USDC(Circle). 

##### On-chain

An on-chain collateralized stablecoin is one that exists purely on the blockchain and is recorded in a decentralized manner and does not need a centralized custodian or issuer.

In order to mint new stablecoins, you need to put in collateral in terms of cryptocurrencies where the most common crypto is Ether. In order to mitigate the price fluctuation that is related to Ether, the protocol uses overcollateralized backing in order to mitigate the risk of depegging the stablecoin from the pegged asset class. An example of this type of stablecoin is DAI which is issued by the protocol MakerDao. 

##### Algorithmic  

An algorithmic stable coin is purley decentralized and not centrally backed by any off-chain assets such as Fiat, Gold or other financial assets. The real difference between an algorithmic stable coin and an on-chain collateralized stable coin, is that the on-chain collateralized stablecoin(like DAI) is over collateralized, whereas algorithmic stablecoins are not. 

What does “algorithmic” mean? By algorithmic it means that it follows a predetermined command that is set by code with a smart contract, it executes automatically when a certain criteria has been fulfilled. The algorithmic stablecoin is backed by another crypto asset that acts as the reserve that backs the price of the stablecoin. One example of this is UST/Terra Luna, UST is the stablecoin and Terra Luna is the crypto asset that backs UST. One problem with algorithmic stablecoins is that they often are undercollateralized and are dependent on the price of the backing crypto asset such as Terra Luna. So, for instance, if a large sell off happens in UST, that would trigger a depeg action which must be backed by minting new Terra Luna. 
So in its essence, UST is backed by market expectation that the underlying asset will appreciate in value. This is a more risky approach to obtain stability in a stablecoin, it can succeed, but it can also, as we have seen, lead to substantial crashes in both the stablecoin and the backing crypto asset. 

What is a stablecoin?

A cryptocurrency wallet is a digital wallet that stores your cryptocurrency holdings. It includes a public address, which allows you to receive cryptocurrencies, and a private key, which allows you to spend or transfer them. The private key should be kept secret, as anyone who has access to it can use it to spend your cryptocurrencies.

###### Difference between Custodial and Non-Custodial cryptocurrency wallets
A Custodial wallet is a type of cryptocurrency wallet where the private keys are stored by a third party, such as an exchange or a provider of online wallet services. This means that you do not have complete control over your private keys, and you are relying on the third party to keep your cryptocurrencies safe.

A Non-Custodial wallet, on the other hand, is a type of wallet where you have complete control over your private keys. This means that you are responsible for keeping your private keys safe, and you are not relying on a third party to do it for you. Non-Custodial wallets can be software wallets, hardware wallets, or paper wallets.

In general, Non-Custodial wallets are considered to be more secure than Custodial wallets because you have complete control over your private keys and you are not relying on a third party to keep them safe. However, they also require you to be more responsible and vigilant in protecting your private keys, as losing them can result in the loss of your cryptocurrencies.

###### There are several different types of cryptocurrency wallets
Software wallets: These are wallets that you download and install on your computer or mobile device. They provide you with complete control over your private keys, but they also carry some security risks because they are connected to the internet.

Web wallets: These are wallets that are accessed through a web browser. They are convenient to use because they can be accessed from any device with an internet connection, but they also carry some security risks because the private keys are stored on a server controlled by a third party.

Hardware wallets: These are physical devices that store your private keys offline, making them more secure than software or web wallets. They are often small and portable, so you can easily take them with you wherever you go.

What is a wallet?

Litecoin is the second oldest cryptocurrency next to Bitcoin, it was created in 2011 by former Google engineer Charlie Lee with the purpose of tackling the proposed issues with Bitcoin, namely transaction speed and transaction fees. Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin, which means that it is a copy of the open source code, but with some inserted differences to make it unique. 

In this text, we will do a lot of comparisons between Bitcoin and Litecoin, we therefore highly recommend you to read the [What is Bitcoin?](https://quickbit.com/int/en-us/knowledge/what-is-bitcoin/) before, if you feel like you need a refresher on how Bitcoin works. 

So what is the difference between Bitcoin and Litecoin? The most significant difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin is the transaction throughput, Litecoin is designed to process blocks in a much more frequent way than Bitcoin, this enables Litecoin to process more transactions per second than Bitcoin. Bitcoin processes around 5-10 transactions per second, while Litecoin can process up to 50-60 transactions per second. This makes Litecoin a more transactional cryptocurrency than Bitcoin, suitable for frequent use in everyday purchases, such as coffee, food or other necessities. 

Litecoin uses the same consensus algorithm as Bitcoin: [Proof of work](https://quickbit.com/int/en-us/knowledge/what-is-proof-of-stake-proof-of-work/). The security of the chain is directly correlated with the hash rate within the network (amount of data power). To obtain consensus within the network and put transactions into blocks, the miners need to solve complex cryptographic puzzles that demand very high energy usage. The more miners that are competing to solve the cryptographic puzzle, the higher the hash rate is. Litecoin has a capped supply like Bitcoin does, however, the capped supply of Litecoin is 84 million instead of the 21 million that Bitcoin has. Litecoin has “halving” as Bitcoin does, so in general the infrastructure is very similar to Bitcoin. However, with fewer transaction validations comes faster processing time, so you could argue that the security compared to Bitcoin, is lower. There are always trade-offs when it comes to decentralization per design and it is up to the market to decide what is more important, security, decentralization, or scalability.

#### Mimblewimble

Litecoin implemented a new feature called Mimblewimble on May 19:th 2022. The Mimblewimble upgrade enables an extension on the Litecoin network, making the transactions that are conducted with this extension totally private. A standard Litecoin transaction shows the sender's address, the recipient's address, and the amount that is being transacted. This could exploit the privacy for people that are concerned with financial privacy. Mimblewimble acts as an extension to the Litecoin network; you could theoretically describe it as a parallel chain or a second layer on top of the Litecoin network. So, each Mimblewimble transaction exists on the Litecoin blockchain, but the transactions are hidden except for the addresses that are in the transaction. Litecoin users have the option to use the feature or not, so it does not alter the functionality of the Litecoin chain itself. Important to note here, is that the exchange or wallet operator that you are using, needs to support Mimblewimble in order for you to be able to use this feature. Quickbit does NOT provide this feature, since it does not comply with AML legislation.

What is Litecoin?

What is Bitcoin Cash and how is it different from Bitcoin? 
Bitcoin cash is a product of one of the largest debates that ever have occurred within the Bitcoin community. The debate was regarding the block-size in the Bitcoin network, you could say that it was two sides, one side that was a proponent of large blocks and one that wanted to keep the block size small. 

Why does the block size matter and what is the difference between large blocks and small blocks? If you increase the block size: This means essentially that each block can contain more transactions. An example, if one block is limited to 1 MB, that could hypothetically mean 10 000 transactions, if a block is created every ten minutes the transaction per second would be 10 000/600 = 17. If you increase the block size to 10 MB, you will essentially increase the transaction throughput tenfold. So the pros of increasing the block size is that Bitcoin's transaction speed remains high, and the network fees remain low, hence, you could argue that it fulfils the requirements of being a digital cash system. 

This sounds like a good thing, so why would you not do it? The drawbacks of this are that it could potentially centralize the node validation. Why may you ask? Well, if the block size becomes too large you increase the data requirement needed to become a node operator. One pathway of doing this is that it could limit the node operators to primarily being large corporations due to the size of the dataset required. This would increase the barrier as well as the equipment requirement and result in more centralization. 

Bitcoin cash, is a fork of Bitcoin (network split), the difference is that Bitcoin cash has significantly larger blocks than Bitcoin have, and that is the difference between the assets. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash servers different roles, Bitcoin Cash is more feasible for everyday use, like purchasing coffee or food. Bitcoin could be seen as a store of value due to its high security and decentralization, but it has however slower processing times, which will make it reluctant to use in everyday purchases. 

So in the end, the difference between Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin is decentralization VS transaction throughput. If you do not think that there are any other ways of scaling blockchains than increasing the block size, then you might be interested in Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin cash has not seen the same adoption and usage in everyday life as Bitcoin has, this could change in the future. If people would value faster processing time and lower processing fees, that could pave the way for Bitcoin Cash. 

What is Bitcoin Cash?

Blockchain can be described as the following: an open, decentralized, incorruptible database. So, instead of a bank keeping track of the transactions via their own private ledger, the blockchain contains a ledger that is visible and open for everyone, hence no need for a third-party intermediary, such as a bank, to keep things in order. The blockchain is built in a non-hierarchical way, in other words, there is no central unit that governs all the entities. In a blockchain database-structure all the entities are connected to each other, which makes it possible to attain decentralization.

Cryptocurrencies are built upon this technology, which makes it possible to attain a decentralized monetary system that lives without third-party intermediaries, such as banks. Why is this powerful? Without dwelling down into economics, and the economic structure of different cryptocurrencies, the concept of cryptocurrency in general is an incredible innovation. Cryptocurrencies enable us to have a monetary premium that is detached from all the central authority i.e., banks, politicians etc. To clarify, cryptocurrencies are not detached from regulation, but it is impossible for central authorities to inflate your crypto, or to keep you from accessing it. This is a powerful freedom tool for people living under financial oppression. The enablement of real self-sovereignty for your finance is a key for enabling a more humane future for people that are living under authoritarian regimes, as well as hyper-inflation, bank runs and other financial related disasters. 

So, how does a cryptocurrency transaction work and how is it different from a regular Fiat transaction that is integrated into the legacy system? First and foremost, a cryptocurrency transaction occurs peer to peer, while a fiat transaction is conducted via several intermediaries, such as issuing banks, card schemes, acquiring banks and clearing houses, to name a few. The infrastructure needed to conduct a crypto transaction is a crypto wallet for the sender as well as for the recipient. The blockchain network that the cryptocurrency is built upon is taking care of the rest, hence, peer to peer and no central intermediaries. To gain an understanding on what this actually means, it could be helpful to illustrate how a cryptocurrency transaction is conducted and include the different steps until it reaches consensus and final settlement.

In order for a Cryptocurrency transaction to be approved, it needs to reach consensus within the network, a consensus regarding that the transaction is true or that it is false. This is reached when over 50 percent of the nodes within the networks agree that the transaction is true. Once a transaction has reached consensus it is put into the blockchain, this is when a blockchain transaction has been settled.

So, for you as a user, the cryptocurrency transaction could be illustrated as follow: You receive the recipients public address and start the transaction by using your crypto wallet, the transaction is put into the network and starts to propagate throughout all of the nodes until it reaches consensus of 51%. After it has reached consensus, the transaction is put into the blockchain and the transaction is settled and arrives in the recipient's wallet.

What is the Blockchain?

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