GM Surgers!

It’s been an interesting week - let’s jump right in!

This week in crypto…

Everything you need to know to stay on top in Web3

🏦 The banks are in trouble

Over the last week, three crypto-adjacent banks went through some… turmoil. One of the most popular startup banks, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), experienced a bank run as VCs and startups scrambled to recover their money. For a moment, it looked like the bank might fail, causing wide-reaching ripple effects across the economy. However, federal regulators stepped in to ensure depositors can recover their funds. SVB got shut down, but it wasn’t the only one.

Regulators also shut down the Signature Bank while Silvergate (another crypto bank) "voluntarily liquidated" its assets. Seems like the catastrophe was narrowly avoided, but not before USDC ever so slightly depegged over the weekend. The stablecoin is back to being stable as it’s now clear that Circle, the company running USDC, will have access to its funds held at SVB and Silvergate. Here’s a timeline of the events.

🖼️ Meta gives up on NFTs

Just ten months after launch, Meta is shutting down NFT features across Facebook and Instagram. In a statement, a spokesperson for Meta said they would “now focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses.

🚀 OpenAI drops GPT-4

After ChatGPT took the world by storm in the past couple of months, OpenAI released GPT-4, a new version of its product. GPT-4 is now available to ChatGPT Plus users. Microsoft also confirmed its Bing Chat is running on GPT-4. The new model accepts both images and texts as prompts and is considered a smarter, better version of ChatGPT.

TLDR: What is ENS? 📩

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a decentralized domain name system that maps human-readable domain names to Ethereum addresses, smart contracts, and other metadata on the Ethereum blockchain.

It provides a simple and intuitive way for users to send and receive cryptocurrency, interact with decentralized applications, and manage their digital identity on the Ethereum network. 🔥

ENS is useful because it simplifies the user experience of interacting with the Ethereum network. Instead of using long and complex Ethereum addresses to send and receive cryptocurrency, you can create simple and easy-to-remember domain names, such as "mywallet.eth" or "mydapp.eth", which can be used to identify their Ethereum address or smart contract.

In addition to simplifying the user experience, ENS also provides other benefits such as:

🔒 Security

ENS is more secure than traditional DNS because it operates on the Ethereum blockchain, which is tamper-proof and immutable.

🌐 Decentralization

ENS is a decentralized system that is controlled by the Ethereum community, which means that there is no central authority or single point of failure that can control or manipulate the domain name registrations.

🤝🏽 Interoperability

ENS is interoperable with other Ethereum-based systems and protocols, which means that it can be used to interact with other decentralized applications, wallets, and services on the Ethereum network.

To use ENS, you need to use an Ethereum wallet that supports ENS, such as MetaMask. You can register a domain name on ENS by following these steps:

👉🏽 Check availability of your preferred domain name on the ENS website or through a third-party registrar.

👉🏽 Purchase domain name by sending ETH to the ENS registrar contract. The price of a domain name varies depending on its length and popularity.

👉🏽 Set up a resolver - a smart contract that maps the domain name to your Ethereum address or smart contract. This can be done through the ENS manager interface or through a third-party resolver service.

⭐️ Want to learn more about NFT domain names and how services like ENS or Unstoppable Domains work? Read this article.

⭐️ Want to set up your ENS? Follow this video tutorial.

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See you next week!

​Dusanka​