This week in crypto we’ve seen Craig Wright produce a totally legitimate draft of the Bitcoin whitepaper in court, Do Kwon become a wanted man and Ethereum finally merging. But which was the top story? Let’s hook up our monocle and find out…
No. 3 – Craig Wright Produces Bitcoin Whitepaper Draft
Satoshi Nakamoto wannabe Craig Wright gave us all a laugh this week when he produced in court what he claimed was a paper draft of the Bitcoin whitepaper. The note, which was snapped by a Hodlonaut vs Wright court reporter, was nothing more than an undateable and totally unverifiable handwritten note containing some text from the whitepaper, with the word ‘Bitcoin’ added in red pen as an afterthought and the date of ‘Aug 2007’ printed in handily bold type at the top.
The document caused great hilarity amid the anti-Wright camp, who questioned the wisdom of using it as evidence in the case, and added it to the list of ever-growing forgeries.
No. 2 – Arrest Warrant Issued for Do Kwon
The man who said that his Terra protocol would never die is now officially a wanted man after South Korean authorities issued a warrant for his arrest this week. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office’s Financial and the Securities Crime Unit have accused Kwon of violating capital market rules and want to seek his extradition from Singapore, going as far as demanding that his passport be seized.
Terra collapsed in June, wrecking the lives of tens of thousands of investors and losing $60 billion, exposing Kwon’s ignorance and making his persistent bravado look imbecilic. Kwon’s prior project, Mirror Protocol, is also being investigated, this time by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and he is facing several Terra-related civil suits, meaning he is likely to be a very busy man over the coming years.
No.1 – Ethereum Successfully Shifts to Proof-of-Stake
It’s taken them four years and cost them many sleepless nights, but Ethereum developers were this week able to celebrate finally moving from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensum mechanism to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) one. The transition, which will make Ethereum around 99% more energy efficient and will eventually speed up transaction times and reduce costs, marks the biggest event in blockchain history since Bitcoin’s launch, and will do wonders for cryptocurrency’s image worldwide.
The fact that the merge took place with barely a bump is testament to the developers who made it happen, although the debate will now start that if Ethereum can do it, why can’t Bitcoin? Should be a fun one.
Honourable Mentions
This week we also learnt that:
- Celsius will not be coming back as a crypto custody service after creditors rejected the idea
- Investment giant Fidelity is considering opening up Bitcoin trading to its 34.4 million account holders
- One of the Coinbase Three charged with earning more than $1 million through insider trading has pleaded guilty after initially pleading not guilty
We’ll be back next week for another review of the week’s top crypto news.
