Argent Newsletter - Issue #6

gm - we’ll keep this part short as there’s a lot to cover! Lessons for 2022, Vitalik on wallet security, an exciting update about our zkSync account, and more. 

🖼️ NFTs have gone mainstream!

You can now set your favorite NFT as your Twitter profile picture (if you’re a Twitter Blue subscriber). People have been changing their Profile Pictures to NFTs, but there was no way to verify ownership. Now you can! 

Twitter wasn’t the only one to integrate NFTs this week. Facebook also jumped on board as they’re working on supporting creating, displaying, buying and selling NFTs across all their platforms.

Also, Microsoft announced that they’re buying Activision Blizzard as part of their metaverse strategy, with Microsoft’s gaming boss saying “gaming will be at the forefront of making [the metaverse] mainstream.” 

📕3 Lessons for 2022

After a turbulent week for crypto, people shared some hard earned lessons for 2022:

1. Jason Choi on his trading lessons. This includes something we’re all guilty of doing: getting carried away with a trend and thinking we’re geniuses
2. Markets up or down, one thing stays the same: taxes. So here's this great thread on crypto tax prep.
3. When you keep crypto on an exchange, you’re trusting that they’ll keep your funds safe. Unfortunately that trust is often misplaced. Last year saw some huge centralized exchange hacks including BitMart, which had $150m stolen. More recently, Crypto.com just got hacked for nearly $34m. Remember: not your keys, not your coins.

🖥️ Web3 - early, with plenty of work ahead

Web3 is no stranger to push back. But rarely has a critique gained as much attention as Moxie’s first impressions of Web3. He argues people will always prioritize convenience over decentralization.

It’s hard to argue with that. But we believe that we can get to a place where the user experience of web3 is even better than the alternatives. You can see glimpses of that now. For example, earning yield in Argent is already easier than it would be in finance, even fintech.

As well as good critiques, there are of course the bad. Packy McCormick responds to these brilliantly in this post.

🎧 Our favorite podcasts & reads

We have two great podcasts this week - both are episodes of UpOnly with notes produced by CMS Intern.

The first is with Tetranode. We particularly enjoyed his thoughts on scaling: Alt-Layer 1s like Solana aren’t Ethereum competitors; and zkSync is the way to bring crypto to the masses. Here are the notes.

The second is with Vitalik Buterin. He discussed Ethereum’s beginnings, the move from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake, wallet security (hint — seed phrases are bad), and much more. It’s a must-listen and here are the notes.

We also have a year-in-review for Ethereum produced by Josh Stark and Evan Van Ness. Together, they highlight 4 key developments: L2 arriving, the creator economy flourishing with NFTs, Ethereum shipping multiple upgrades and DAOs becoming tools to govern communities. Everything you need to know about last year is there. 

💥 Argent update 

We’re rolling out more trading pairs on zkSync in partnership with ZigZag. Everything that can be traded on ZigZag will be accessible in Argent. This list will continue to grow meaning you can make more trades for just $1 on zkSync. 

For making it this far in the newsletter, we’re excited to share that we will announce a new DeFi integration on zkSync. You’ll be able to get exposure to a range of tokens easily. We won’t spoil the announcement now, but we think you’ll love it.