The Week in Web3

Author

Sarah from Layer3
May 30, 2022

We call this richer, pluralistic ecosystem “Decentralized Society” (DeSoc)...where Souls and communities come together bottom-up, as emergent properties of each other to co-create plural network goods and intelligences, at a range of scales.

— E. Glen Weyl, Puja Ohlhaver, & Vitalik Buterin, in Decentralized Society: Finding Web3's Soul

GM and here’s to another week in web3! Welcome to the 400+ new subscribers that joined us since last week 💪

Your daily briefing includes Vitalik’s vision for “soulbound NFTs,” LUNA 2.0, and the lawsuit against PoolTogether. In Layer3 news, we’re kicking off a special “bounty week” for our community. Read on for exclusive opportunities to earn crypto!

Your Web3 Briefing 📝

A roundup of the biggest Web3 headlines over the last week

What are “soulbound NFTs” and why should I care?

If you’ve been on crypto Twitter recently, you’ve probably heard some version of the phrase “soulbound NFTs.” But aren’t they just non-transferable NFTs? What’s the big deal? Beyond just this very confusing buzzword, we’re here to explain what the fuss is all about.

The term soulbound token (SBTs) was officially coined in a paper penned by Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin earlier this month. Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul discusses social relationships of trust and how they are critical to many of the core economic activities governing web3.

The underlying logic behind SBTs is to address the lack of a native web3 identity. Many web3 organizations, DAOs, and companies struggle with sybil resistance (spam and bot prevention) while balancing their commitments of decentralization.

This is because the world’s most ubiquitous economic activities require some form of social identity verification that just doesn’t exist yet in web3, and Vitalik’s paper attempts to provide an answer for what this “web3 identity” would look like.

Their proposal? Non-transferable and initially public SBTs as a way to represent commitments, credentials, and affiliations. The goal? Creating a “decentralized society” that grows exponentially and produces plural network goods.

LUNA 2.0 down over 70%, just hours after debut

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Is LUNA a fool’s game at this point?

In the fiery aftermath of the Terra/LUNA crash, Do Kwon and Terraform Labs announced a new version of the Terra blockchain, also known as “Terra 2.0,” complete with newly minted 1 billion LUNA2 tokens. 21 million LUNA2 were airdropped to users on Sunday.

Terra 2.0 launched officially on May 27, and most major exchanges, including Kraken, KuCoin, OKX, and Bybit, Bitfinex, listed LUNA2 for trading with USDT/USDC pairs. Bitrue even announced a 7% APY staking option (I mean…really?).

After peaking at $19.54 on Saturday, however, LUNA2 shed almost 73% of its initial value. It’s now trading at $6.89.

On Sunday, South Korean authorities have also begun subpoenaing employees of Terraform Labs, with one employee testifying that “there were internal concerns regarding the sustainability of Terra.”

What else you should know

What we've been BUIDLing 🏗️

We’ve been heads-down focused on building out instant bounties this week and getting them ready for our partnered communities. You can now view the Bounties you’ve claimed on your user profile:

You might have also noticed that we’ve been testing bounties throughout the week. You can try some of them below, and be on the watch for a daily bounty launching every day of this week.

Earn 25 Layer3 XP for the following:

In other news: We launched Crypto Jeopardy last week, a trivia activity where our community had the opportunity to earn 25 USDT for answering crypto-related questions every day. And we got a shoutout from Messari Crypto, the leading crypto research firm!

🛣️ Stay up to speed on what we're building: Take a look at our roadmap to see what we've been cooking at Layer3, and a preview of what’s to come.

🚢 And if you want to help decide what we ship next: You can submit a feature request here and vote on your favorites! Some top community requests have already made it onto our roadmap.

Community Spotlight 🔍

A weekly spotlight on some of our favorite DAOs, communities, and L3 community contributors

Featured Community: ZetaChain

🤓 What: Read up on ZetaChain and blockchain interoperability, and put your writing skills to work to educate the world on the future of multichain!

📝 Instructions: Write an article on ZetaChain on any publisher or content tool of choice. The best article for any of the following languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Korean, Vietnamese, German, French) will win 100 USDC each.

Power User Feature: Anthony

This week we’re featuring our very own Dune Wizard, Anthony, who received a full-time offer as a web3 Data Analyst after building his analytics skills on Layer3. We love to see it!

Have you landed a web3 job after using Layer3 as your proof-of-contribution? Tell us more about it by sliding in our Twitter DMs or by messaging meowllark#5896 on Discord.

Web3 101: Proof-of-work vs. proof-of-stake💡

Each week we’ll cover an essential web3 concept in simple terms. This week we’re looking at the ERC-721 standard ✨

What is proof-of-work/proof-of-stake?

Proof-of-work and proof-of-stake are two important concepts in blockchain technology. These consensus mechanisms enable users to send cryptocurrency to each other, and transact securely on blockchains.

How does proof-of-work/proof-of-stake work?

In order to understand proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, you will need to understand the fundamentals of mining. Mining refers to the process that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies use to generate new coins and verify transactions.

Proof-of-work verifies cryptocurrency transactions through competitive mining. In proof-of-work, “miners” compete against each other to solve cryptographic puzzles and validate transactions. To verify the transaction, the winning miner will update the blockchain ledger with all newly verified transactions, adding another “block” to the ledger.

Proof-of-stake differs from proof-of-work in that blocks are verified through a process called “staking.” Coin owners can offer coins as collateral to validate transactions and blocks. This collateral allows coin owners to become validators.

Where can I learn more about these consensus mechanisms?

Check out this analysis piece by Blockworks on the advantages and tradeoffs of each.

Want to get your hands on a Layer3 NFT, mug or even a much coveted hoodie?

PS👇