Ep. 106: All Roads Lead to Hedera (Weekly News)

Dec. 21

Recorded live on 𝕏 Spaces December 20th, 2023

The last episode of Hashgraph Enthusiasts for the year! We reflect on everything that's happened, unpack the big narratives happening in web3 regarding fees, take a look at the latest ETF rumours, review Charles' first week as Hedera's president, step back and admire the insanity happening on the Hedera network and within the ecosystem and community, I share insider updates on WalletConnect for Hedera and we take a look forward into 2024! A huge thanks to all the supporters of the show, can't wait for what's next...

Tune in live on 𝕏 Spaces Wednesdays at 12pm ET / 9am PT for the weekly news. Recordings available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube and other major platforms the following day.

Thanks to all supporters!
It’s easy to contribute, it helps me improve the show every week and I appreciate all the fun transaction memos, they make my day!

Send HBAR to the show’s Hedera wallet:
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Top Stories of The Week

1. Reflecting on 2023
Many folks in the Hedera ecosystem are reflecting on the past year. It was a hard year, but one filled with a ton of innovation both at an enterprise level and at the community level. The HBAR Foundation published their retrospective this week and we talk about a few key elements of it, most notably, ""Project Insight"". We also illustrate the scale of use cases (it's pretty crazy) and I take a moment to reflect on the growth of the show.

2. Congestion, Fees & Frustration
There are quite a few networks like AVAX, ADA, ETH and SOL currently experiencing higher usage, which is leading to a sharp increase in fees and failed transactions. Many on social media are complaining about this and a new narrative is forming around low, fixed fees. It places Hedera at the intersection of these topics. Furthermore, MEV is becoming a hot topic and again, this is an area where Hedera shines. We talk about all this and what it means.

3. More ETF Updates & Rumours
In an exciting twist, many reports have come out over the last 3 weeks that further increase the likelihood of Bitcoin Spot ETFs being listed in January. There has been a recent meeting between BlackRock and the SEC, a few ETFs have been listed on the DTCC and a new TV advertisement from Bitwise has just dropped.

4. Hedera President: Week One
As we talked about on the show last week, Charles Adkins was announced as the new Hedera president. With a strong background in finance, marketing and web3, he's well suited for the job and over his first week, we've seen a sharp shift in how key Hedera individuals talk about the network and present themselves. Mance and Leemon are posting more, narratives are being taken advantage of and things feel very fresh... who knows what it could mean, but we chat about it!

5. Hedera In Beast Mode
Let's break this down: 1M New Hedera NFTs minted in 60 hours, 250M Transactions in 24 hours, 3k TPS, 3 seconds to finality, 10x revenue growth YoY, TVL at ATH, fees remain low & fixed, big partnerships, HBAR golden cross and growing positive sentiment in the community. When you factor in some meme coins pumping and a ramp-up in big announcements for projects, it feels like Hedera is waking up in a big way after a brutal bear market.

6. Hedera Gaming Breadcrumbs
With 1 million new NFTs minted over the last few days and some ""Dr Who"" related tokens appearing on mainnet, gaming breadcrumbs continue to swirl. Additionally, Spielworks recently acquired Atomic Hub with support from The Hashgraph Association. A top web3 gaming ecosystem, marketplace and wallet have come into focus and all roads lead to Hedera.

7. The HTS Crypto Market
When we talk about onboarding new people into the Hedera ecosystem, one of the most effective marketing tools we have are fun things, like meme coins. Love em' or hate em' they grab eyeballs, print big green candles and put smiles on faces. On the flip side, they can cause folks to lose a lot of money. One thing is true, you just can't ignore them and embracing them vs discounting them might be the wisest option.

8. WalletConnect Updates
Over the past few months, wallets in the Hedera ecosystem came together to develop new standardized integrations for WalletConnect, a leading web3 protocol. This will allow any wallet to work with any dApp on Hedera and unlock all new possibilities for developers and users. It's incredibly exciting and I share my thoughts on the project from an inside persoective. You can read more on the Hedera blog.

9. Messari 2024 Crypto Thesis
A big voice in crypto, Messari announces their 2024 thesis report and we have some highlights from it including: crypto becoming political, focus on stablecoins and CBDCs, CeFi trends, Layer-1 competition, DeFi growth potential, ownership economy, advancements in P2P and bear markets. The full report goes live for free in January so keep an eye out.

10. Looking ahead…
As we wrap up the show for the year, i share my thoughts looking ahead. As a hashgraph enthusiast, it no longer feels as if we’re working to try and will something into existence. We are now working on something that exists. We are on very solid footing for the first time and should take advantage of that with bold moves. It appears as other networks are not on very solid footing after making many bold moves. I think 2024 is going to be interesting...