ethereum

The Ethereum Merge

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The morning after a big software release can be both terrifying and exhilarating.

Kudos to the Ethereum team for pulling off a massively complex transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. This reduces the energy consumption of the Ethereum blockchain by 99.95% (and global energy consumption by 0.2%). 

I am still not convinced by the utility of the crypto ecosystem, and I am sure there will be bumps along the way. The transition to Proof of Stake will further entrench the power of those holding significant capital. Proof of Work meant influence aggregated to those who could deploy significant computing power by spending vast amounts of money on GPU hardware. The switch to Proof of Stake will remove the hardware intermediation layer. The massive savings in energy and speedups in transaction processing make it a worthwhile change.

Philosophical arguments aside, as a software engineer, I can appreciate a job well done 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾. 

Adventures in Web 3.0 #1 – Say My Name!

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I bought my first NFT today – I am the proud owner of rushiluhar.eth. It was an interesting experience. Quite similar, in some ways, to creating my first website almost twenty years ago.

Some observations:

1. You need to know what you are doing 🤔.
The world of Web 3.0 is confusing and the UX .. leaves a lot to be desired. I used the most popular wallet – Metamask and bought rushiluhar.eth from ens.domains. None of these applications are for the faint hearted.

2. You need to be patient ⏳. 
I wanted to use the domain to point to my newly created Ethereum wallet address. This involved two separate steps. First buying the NFT (yes, each eth domain address is a NFT), and then another step to link the domain to my ETH wallet. Each step involves a transaction, and each transaction takes at least a minute to complete. And given the costs involved (see below), the lack of feedback or clarity is .. perplexing.

3. You need to be rich 🤑. 
ENS is run as a non profit, but you have to pay transaction fees. Which are crazy high, and change all the time. Buying a domain (like rushiluhar.eth) costs 0.001 ETH + the number of years you want to register the domain. So for 5 years, it costs 0.006 ETH – roughly $25 today. Not bad! *But* – the gas fees were (quoted at most) 0.043 ETH – almost $200! Making it my primary ENS domain involved another ~$85 in transaction fees. Ouch.

4. You need to be an exhibitionist 😬. 
The blockchain is public! Every single transaction is visible. If you want to laugh at me paying exorbitant gas fees for buying a worthless vanity NFT, just hop on over to Etherscan and search for rushiluhar.eth. 

5. You need to be slightly delusional 🤪.
The poster child of Web 3.0 (Ethereum) claims to become the World Computer. *But* current transaction fees put doing anything interesting on it out of reach of 99.9% of the world’s population. Something does not compute.. 

Also feel free to send a couple of ETH my way, you know the address..

Some Notes

Domain – You can buy your very own eth domain at ENS Domains but you will need a wallet, some crypto and a basic understanding of how ENS works and why you should bother.

Wallet – Metamask has integrations with a bunch of different Web3.0 sites like OpenSea, Foundation, ens.domains, etc. Its the easiest way to setup a wallet, just don’t forget your password.

Crypto – I would suggest using a reputed exchange like Coinbase to buy or sell crypto and then transfer a small amount to your Metamask wallet.

Why bother – A brief explainer of what else you can do with an ENS domain.

If you are interested in why I decided to spend a good bit of money on a ENS domain (apart from bragging rights on LinkedIn..) , check out this thread by Balaji Srinivasan.