Fact or Cap: Crypto Edition 🧢

Hey everyone!

Over the past few years, a handful of topics have been consistently in the headlines. However, it's tough to look at any form of media and not see these two: the Kardashians and cryptocurrency. While the former is always tripled checked in detail by its loyal fanbase and the tabloids, the latter is usually taken at face value. Cryptocurrency is a scam! The blockchain isn’t real! Dogecoin to the moon! It’s tough to know what’s fact… or cap 🧢! So today, we’re going to play our own game of Fact or Cap 🧢: Crypto Edition, where we help you debunk some recent Web3 headlines to know if it’s real or actually a scam. 

And stay tuned to the end - we want to hear from you!

Let’s go!

FACT or CAP: Can Ethereum be used to cure cancer?

We know. This is quite the use case, if it’s true.. and turns out this is actually a FACT.  

Earlier this year, a medical team wrote a paper citing that blockchains were actually proving to be useful for cancer researchers to more effectively share information with each other for their Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems.

How does this work, you ask? 

Well, the team says that AI can actually help predict the emergence of cancerous cells in patients by extracting information about the shape and size of cells that the human eye can’t see. However, one downside is that the large datasets necessary to run such AI systems face “practical, ethical and legal obstacles” from a data collection point of view, especially if the data is being shared across countries. To combat this, systems rely on a centralized coordinator who essentially combines all the model weights together. 

But wait–there’s one slight problem with this: The coordinator gets complete control over the research project and its commercial exploitation. Sounds a little risky if you ask us!

This is where blockchain technology comes in. Smart contracts on Ethereum actually allow AI model parameters to be shared simultaneously across everyone working on the model without using a centralized coordinator. The AI models that are being validated and built by a collective of researchers are ultimately being used to predict the emergence of cancerous cells in the body. 

This might’ve been one of the most interesting stories in the Web3 headlines this week. We say “one of” because there was obviously one story that dominated the headlines everywhere… and that’s none other than Mr. Tesla himself, Elon Musk and his acquisition of Twitter.

FACT or CAP: Did Elon Musk buy Twitter to bring the platform into Web3?

If your social media is anything like ours, you’ve probably seen the news that Elon Musk officially bought Twitter. And let’s just say… the man has been getting straight to work with very little remorse. Whew! 

Amidst all of the headlines about him firing top executives and a large majority of the workforce, there have also been questions about what portion of Elon’s vision for the company involves elements of Web3 and crypto. We also saw that Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, invested $500 million into Elon’s acquisition of Twitter, citing that he “believes crypto needs a ‘seat at the table’ following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter.”

So, what was the real motive behind Elon’s acquisition of Twitter? 

Two words: Free speech. 

In a statement Elon posted last week, he did not mention anything about crypto or blockchain ideas regarding his reasoning for buying Twitter. Instead, he shared that he bought Twitter because of his belief in building a “common digital town square.” It’s lowkey giving metaverse, but we digress. 

Safe to say, this is CAP…ish. Elon clearly bought Twitter to give people with wide-ranging beliefs the ability to debate their views without resorting to violence, rather than separating into “far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers.” However, it’s hard to believe that an avid Dogecoin fan like him has no plans for how Twitter will make a play deeper into Web3 eventually. Only time will tell for this one. In the meantime, sending love to all the current Twitter employees who are dealing with absolute craziness right now! 

FACT or CAP: Cryptocurrency is bad for the environment

To answer this question, we need to look back at a core concept. Remember that idea of Proof of Work (PoW) vs. Proof of Stake (PoS)? If not, check out our newsletter on the Ethereum Merge. Now Bitcoin, which is the largest cryptocurrency in circulation, runs on a PoW model, as well as other popular coins that you might have heard about, like Dogecoin and Litecoin. 

And what’s the problem with PoW? It takes a lot of energy! Like a lot a lot. 

According to Earth.com, Bitcoin emits some 57 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, nearly half a ton of CO2 for every transaction. To offset (read: cancel out this huge problem) this would require planting 300 million trees. So yes, it is a FACT that cryptocurrency is bad for the environment…

But not all cryptocurrency! So it’s also CAP…ish.

Let’s go back to PoS. One of the biggest advantages of PoS vs. PoW is that it uses waaaaaaaay less computing power. In fact, when Ethereum shifted from its old PoW model to PoS, its energy consumption was reduced by 99.95%! In fact, Gold mining and YouTube consume over twice as much energy as the Ethereum’s latest PoS update (don’t worry, you can still watch your music videos and vlogs, we won’t tell)! 

Source: Ethereum Foundation / LinkedIn

We want to hear from you!

Typically, this is the part of the article where we wrap up with a “thanks for reading!”, but this week we’d love to hear from YOU about Web3 myths or truths you’d like for us to dive deeper into. There’s a lot of cap 🧢 out there, so everything is fair game. Drop us a note here to ask questions or share topics of interest!

We appreciate you reading, as always! 🙏🏽

– Chad & Kendall