Argent Newsletter - Issue #14

gm everyone - the past couple of weeks have been turbulent, but it’s not all doom and gloom as we share some positivity about the industry.

TLDR: 

1. Week over week, StarkNet is seeing exponential growth
2. Despite everything, Web3 is giving us all a chance to build a fairer internet
3. We share an update on everything that we’ve been doing 

Now let’s get into it all and more! 🚀

🚀The StarkNet ecosystem is taking off! 

Since our last StarkNet ecosystem update, so much has happened. Argent X, the first wallet for StarkNet, passed 120,000 downloads and has received numerous updates. The latest was 3D NFT support, the ability to send and receive NFTs, and Argent X is now available on Firefox. 

Beyond Argent X, StarkNet is seeing rapid growth, with transactions increasing each week. And StarkNet’s bridge, StarkGate Alpha, went live on mainnet, allowing you to move assets from Ethereum to Starknet, but deposits are capped. 

StarkNet gets upgraded regularly and there is a chance your funds could become inaccessible.

🤗 Web3 gives us a reason to be optimistic

While the collapse of the Terra ecosystem disrupted market sentiment, there’s still so much to be optimistic about in this industry. Web3 is giving us all a chance to build a fairer internet that’s owned, operated by, and works for its users, not monopolies like Facebook and Google, as this article explains. 

Another reason to be positive is the report released by a16z on the current crypto landscape. It explains how the industry has evolved over the past 10 years and where we’re heading. It’s full of great insights and is easy to read.

Here are 3 takeaways from the report that we liked:

1. Web3 is empowering creators globally through NFTs and marketplaces like Opensea charge much lower fees than their Web2 alternatives, enabling creators to keep more of what they earn.
2. Through easy access to digital dollars and financial services, crypto is having a real-world impact for many across the globe who are excluded from the traditional financial system. 
3. Ethereum is the market leader. 

What’s clear from this report is that crypto isn’t just a financial innovation - it’s social, cultural, and technological, set to continue making many positive changes for years to come. 

📚 What we’re reading and listening to

Why I don’t own any BTC anymore - by Cole South

How Hop Protocol filtered out over 10,000 Sybil attacker addresses and enlisted an army of Sybil hunters to find the rest

Decentralized Society: Finding Web3's Soul - by Glen Weyl, Puja Ohlaver, and Vitalik Buterin

Last, we have this episode of Uncommon Core on The Merge. So much was covered, including why blockchains need consensus and how The Merge will happen. This is only part 1, so if you enjoy it, there will be more!

💭 What’s happening at Argent 

As we teased in our last newsletter, we have finally released Dark Mode for Android in our latest mobile update. We also added Moonpay as a new way to purchase crypto on Layer 2. And we’ve made fees even more transparent while making it easier to discover new tokens. 

If you’ve not bought crypto on Layer 2 before with either Ramp or Moonpay, you will pay no fees on your first purchase, no matter how big or small that purchase may be. Finally, we’ve added 2 more IndexCoop products: icETH (leveraged staking utilizing stETH) and JPG (NFT index).