Ethereum News and Links
Protocol
- Casper FFG testnet is live.
 - Vitalik: Current sharding spec is “good enough to get us to thousands of transactions per second”
 - Some Reddit Q&A with Vitalik on sharding
 - Ethereum Foundation will fund independent sharding clients through a grants program.  Also, grants for level 2 solutions (state channels, Plasma, etc).  Very glad to see this.
 - Correct-by-construction Casper viz and how RChain’s differs from Ethereum’s. Speaking of, latest Casper standup call
 - Current Casper plan: “emission rate to be proportional to square root of total deposits, so annualized return is proportional to inverse square root of total deposits.”
 - Get slashed less when your errors are non-correlated with other stakers
 - Vitalik: Minimum Viable Plasma spec
 
Stuff for developers
- Private Transactions with Quorum
 - ERC809: Renting Standard for Rival, Non-Fungible Tokens
 - Rinkeby (clique consensus) “testnet/private” blockchain explorer
 - A libsnark tutorial and development environment
 
Ecosystem
- Ethereum Q4 roundup
 - The decline of EtherDelta: first it got hacked, now it’s doing a totally unnecessary token sale. Plus they’re going to restrict token listings showing that they fundamentally don’t understand why people used ED
 - Hudson Jameson will redo ethereum.org
 - Josh Stark: Digital Collectibles and the Weird Future of “Digibles”.   Check out Digibles – a wallet for digital collectibles
 - Parity v1.7.11 (stable) and v1.8.5 (beta)
 
Project Updates
- BAT has 4000 publishers and is working on Twitch integration
 - Year in review: Status, Iconomi
 - December monthly updates: Melon, Aragon
 - Brian Armstrong’s vision for Toshi: blockchains as tools for prosperity in developing countries
 - Fortune covers ConsenSys supply chain project Viant: Can blockchain tell you if you’re eating sustainable fish?
 
Interviews, Videos and Talks
- Chris Dixon on Investor Field Guide podcast
 - Arthur Camara of CryptoKitties on Blockchain Guy podcast
 - Joe Lubin interview for Coindesk’s Most Influential 2017
 - EthNews interview with Microsoft’s Marley Gray
 - “When New Tech and Dated Policies Collide: a Conversation with Vitalik Buterin”
 
General
- FastCompany: 2018 Is Going To Be A Massive Year For Blockchains
 - Blockchains and healthcare
 - Andrew Keys: 18 predictions for 2018 and Ryan Selkis: 95 Theses for 2018.  
 - Hooters franchisee talks about blockchain; stock soars
 - The Ripple bubble has its leaders in the top 10 richest people in the world. And yes, that’s a bubble.
 - Kik is leaving Stellar too…? 
 - CryptoKitties makes the New York Times.
 - Vitalik reminds us that the whole point of Ethereum is to improve society through decentralization. Clickbait publishers tried to turn his words into a threat to quit the project.
 
Dates of note
From Token Sale Calendar.
Upcoming token sale start dates:
- January 7 – Rocketpool (proportional refund cap, so final day is the main day)
 - January 16 – Kudos Project
 - February 1 – Winding Tree
 - February 7 – Dether
 - February 13 – Right Mesh
 
Ongoing token sales:
WARNING: list may include or even likely includes scams and quasi-scams. Do your own research and due diligence before putting value at risk.
[I aim for a relatively comprehensive list of Ethereum sales, but make no warranty as to even whether they are legit; as such, I thus likewise warrant nothing about whether any will produce a satisfactory return. I have passed the CFA exams, but this is not investment advice.]
If you appreciate this newsletter, thank ConsenSys.
I’m thankful that ConsenSys has brought me on as an employee and given me time to do this newsletter.

Editorial control is 100% me. If you’re unhappy with editorial decisions, blame me first and last.
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