Blockchain-Powered Cars

🎣 w3.catch-of-the-week cw30

Quinn Wilhelm & Vicktoria Klich
July 26, 2024

GMGM and welcome to the 🎣 w3.catch-of-the-week - your concise surprise bag, full of sweet nuggets of what's going on in Web3.

While Bitcoin saw record inflows last week, the Ethereum ETF got off to a rather slow start. Again, mainly due to the party pooper Grayscale 💩.

Grayscale's Trust Fund, like the Bitcoin ETF, traded for quite some time at a discount and many traders are now able to realize profits through the ETFs.

As a reminder, 12 days after the Bitcoin ETFs started trading, we saw outflows of 12 billion through Grayscale. It took Grayscale almost 4 months to record the first inflows into the Bitcoin ETF.

After the first two days of trading, the Grayscale ETF $ETHE recorded outflows of $811 million, representing 9% of their holdings.

But the trading data for the Bitcoin ETF looks promising.

Bonus: The Bitcoin 2024 conference starts today. One of the main speakers: Donald Trump.

🤓 PS: There is speculation that he will announce a national reserve in Bitcoin.

🚘 Toyota x Ethereum
🔮 Bet on your Beliefs
🏅 The best Layer 2
💸 Peter Thiel x Luca Netz
🦖 Community Shoutout

How Web3 enters the Mobility Sector

Toyota is working on the next generation of cars that will be managed like digital accounts, powered by blockchain.

Toyota plans to use Ethereum’s blockchain to create Mobility-Oriented Accounts (MOA). Basically cars that are more programmable, secure, and service-focused.

These accounts will be based on the ERC-4337 standard, which separates authentication from key management.

→ If a private key is lost, the account remains secure. The blockchain will store car information like usage history and maintenance records. It allows multiple entities to approve operations.

What is Mobility 3.0? 🛣️

Mobility 3.0 is Toyota’s vision to integrate cars with public infrastructure. It aims to make cars more than just personal property; they become part of a larger mobility ecosystem. They want to use blockchain to make traffic operations more effective and transparent.

How does it work? 👀

Users can use smartphone apps to present their addresses and rights, represented by NFTs, to the MOA In-Vehicle Device (MOA-IVD). This device interacts with the blockchain to perform operations like unlocking the car or starting the engine.

Permissions for car operations can be packaged and granted as NFTs.

For example, permissions to drive the car or to unlock the trunk can be granted with expiration dates.

Toyota’s Vision 🔮

“The most extreme scenario suggested by these features is fully autonomous driving in the future. Autonomous mobility, which no longer requires human operation, can function as a completely independent service entity, with all rights being handled in the on-chain world.”

The hottest Web3 Application

Web3 Use Cases made it into American television or into various podcasts. Yes, we are talking about Polymarket, ✨where you bet on your beliefs✨.

The number of deposits and daily users currently knows only one direction:

UP🚀

The betting platform lets you bet on real life events, such as which candidate the Democratic Party will put up for election in the USA.

It was also possible to bet on Joe Bidens dropout.

Or you could bet on what words Biden would say during his speech regarding his dropout... you get the picture.

Not everything has to do with politics, even if that is currently the number one topic on Polymarket. Other bets are, for example, whether Kanye West will retire in 2024 or whether Taylor Swift will be engaged in 2024.

Interestingly, Polymarket had its first hype phase in 2020, when elections were also due in the USA. This raises the question: Will the current hype only last until the election or will Polymarket continue to establish itself as the source of truth in society?

Let us know your opinion in our community group.

The Big Layer 2 Showdown

Do we need more Layer 2s or are the current ones “good enough”? Let’s find out out together.

From Blast to ZkSync to the Pudgy Penguins. In the last few weeks, there has hardly been a week without a new Layer 2 being discussed.

First a short recap, what is the point of the Layer 2 principle?

Ethereum processes over 1 million transactions per day. In order for this to continue to be possible without transaction costs skyrocketing, we need layer 2s. This is because the Ethereum mainnet can only process 15 transactions per second (TPS).

Layer 2s therefore ensure scalability. While enjoying the high security of the Ethereum network.

Let’s move on to the status quo of Layer 2s:

This chart shows that more and more people have been using Layer 2s since 2022. While only 5% of all Ethereum users made use of Layer 2s two years ago, this figure is currently over 75% 📈.

Here you can see that Coinbase's Layer 2 solution Base is currently the most widely used and has overtaken Arbitrum.

For comparison, transactions processed daily: Ethereum approx. 1 million transactions, Arbitrum approx. 2 million transactions and Base approx. 3 million transactions.

On July 22, Base set a new record of 52.8 Transactions per second.

If we take a look at the average transaction fees, we see that they vary from $0.005 to $0.3. With Optimism having the highest fees and Arbitrum the lowest.

Base and Arbitrum are also well ahead in terms of active users. Interestingly, the trend shows that Base is gaining more users whilst Arbitrum is losing more.

All L2s today are a long way from a TVL of $10 B, which Polygon was able to achieve in 2021. Currently, the TVL of Polygon and Optimism looks rather flat, while that of Arbitrum and Base is in a growth trend.

$11 million Funding for Luca Netz

Speaking of Layer 2s, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund has led an $11 million financing round.

Igloo, the parent company of Pudgy Penguins, is using this funding to build a new Layer 2 blockchain.

Abstract is to be the name of the new “consumer-focused” Layer 2.

🚀 New VOYA HQ 🚀
We’ve moved! Our new office is now a lush Dyno jungle with cool stickers, a VOYA neon sign, and plenty of plants! 🌱🔥🦖
Enjoying privacy and still being part of @w3_hub , the hub for Berlin’s Web3 companies and most amazing co-working space 😎
— VOYA Games (@Voya_Games)
4:53 PM • Jul 24, 2024