Argent Newsletter - Issue #17

gm everyone - welcome to our newsletter, where we cover the latest updates from the Ethereum, DeFi, and NFT ecosystem. 

TLDR: 

1. A date for The Merge has been announced! 
2. Celsius filed for bankruptcy
3. More on ZK rollups and Ethereum scaling

Now, let’s get into it all! 🚀

🗓 Save the date!

The Merge is one of the most exciting updates to happen to Ethereum, and in previous issues, we have shared many updates and what they mean.

In this Issue, we can share the suggested date and timeline to implement the final stages of The Merge. It’s expected to be the week of September 19th - save the date!   

If you’re unaware of The Merge, we did a short explainer that we recommend you check out. If you have any questions - ask away in our Discord.

😧 Celsius filed for bankruptcy!

Another story that we have been sharing regular updates on is the growing collapse of CeFi lenders. Only recently, one of the largest - Celsius - filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

Chapter 11 bankruptcy gives a company a chance to recognize its debts and liabilities so it can try to function. Little more is known about the filing, but one thing is for sure, and that is this story is bound to continue dominating headlines.

Before declaring bankruptcy, Celsius had to pay off their remaining DeFi debt as a ‘deal is a deal’ with DeFi, as Dan Morehead puts it. In DeFi, the terms are clearly set out, agreed on, and enforced when needed. There’s no way to wriggle out of it. 

If the debt wasn’t paid back before Celsius declared bankruptcy, Celsius would be at threat of getting liquidated on those loans, which would inflict further pain on the people who entrusted Celsius with their savings.

⚡️ Learn more about L2!

It’s L2’22 - Layer 2, 2022. More and more people are using Layer 2s to benefit from cheap, instant transactions, but they’re still a relatively new concept. 

To make them more accessible, one thing we’re trying to do more of is share great resources about them. 

That’s why we wanted to share this great explainer on ZK rollups - a type of Layer 2 - about how they work, what the key terms are, and much more. There are some amazing graphics, and it’s very easy to dip in and out of the video if you want to learn more about something specific.  

📚 What we’re reading

The Layer-1 Chain Rotation Thesis: A Retrospective Analysis - ChainLinkGod

Learn How to Build for the Creator Economy - Li Jin

What do I think about network states? - Vitalik Buterin

💭 What’s happening at Argent 

Argent X, the largest wallet for StarkNet, reached 200,000 downloads. To celebrate, we hosted an AMA with Julien Niset, co-founder and CSO of Argent, Ismael Darwish, Argent X product lead and Louis Guthmann, ecosystem lead for StarkWare. 

We’ll be in Paris next week for ETH CC and StarkNet CC. If you happen to be there, come and say hey to the team, we’d love to meet you.