Unlocking Ethereum’s Potential: ETH Dencun Upgrade & ETF

My personal prediction is 12,000 to 27,000 per ethereum within 18 to 30 Months a major ethereum rally could be Around the corner fueled by predictions That a spot ethereum ETF will be Approved in May this year meanwhile the Imminent Denon upgrade is set to Dramatically improve ethereum's scaling Capabilities what is the potential of Ethereum in this bull market cycle and What are the challenges that it needs to Face in order to win the competition With other layer one blockchains I Address this and more questions in my Conversation with ethereum Community Member and investor Ryan berkmans before We dive in I'm thrilled to announce the Upcoming return of block show the Leading event in the crypto and Blockchain Industry this time it's Teaming up with block down a Pioneer in The web three conference scene get ready To join us in Hong Kong for this crypto Celebration from May 8 to 9 don't miss Out click the link in the description to Learn more about this event and remember Early birthday are limited and now let's Get started with the Interview Analyst at Standard Chartered Said that there is a high chance an spot Eum ETF will be approved by may this Year in the US what do you think about This prediction what I'm hearing is that With black rock pushing for it and uh uh

There being such similarities in the in The POs you know the leadup to the ETF Of Bitcoin and ethereum it sounds like It will be approved and I think it will Have a massive impact on price so Talking about the price analysts at the Standard Charter said that ethereum will Likely reach about $4,000 in the runup To the hypothetical approval of a spot Ethereum ETF what do you think about This assessment I think it's a positive Outlook I'll say that right now the Ethereum ratio relative to bitcoin uh is Historically low one factor is that the Crypto cycle is rising we're we're Entering into a bull market you know Next Factor ratio is historically low That means opportunity for growth if the Fundamentals in place which I I argue They they are this crypto cycle over the Next uh you know I I tend to think of it As being about 18 to 30 months you know A year and a half to two and a half Years I think it's going to be Absolutely spectacular uh essentially The same as last cycle only only much Much bigger where do you think are we in The cycle at the moment I think we're in The second inning Giovani I think that a Lot of folks like to think that 2024 Going to be this big blowoff top year That the bull the bull is eminent I Don't think that's the case I think I Think we're in the warm-up here I think

That the the real Highs are likelier to Come in 2025 or 26 it's going to take Some time you know um obviously the US Presidential election could have a Potentially significant impact on prices There's a lot of perception that you Know one side is anti- crypto and the Other is pro crypto uh which is an Unfortunate reality so we'll have to see How the the election and those Perceptions pan out but uh overall I Think we're we're in the early Innings Of an obvious bull formation I know that It's difficult to make predictions but Uh what is the numbers are you looking At in terms of price Peck for ethereum At the top of this cycle right so Giovani I I've looked at uh my personal Prediction for the uh Peak Bitcoin ether Ratio this cycle as well as sort of some Handwavy math around the fact that Following the ethereum merge to proof of Stake we've eliminated huge amounts of Cell pressure into ether that the you Know the mining Community was was Contributing ethereum mining was so big That it put a a gravity well into the Global GPU industry it was it was this Huge phenomenon and at the top last Cycle not a lot of people know this but 60% of all proof of work uh cost was Ethereum so even though ethereum had a Much smaller Market market cap than Bitcoin uh we were actually contributing

About 50% more raw dollars to prove of Work sell pressure at those top prices If you look at the the Bitcoin happening And you look at the merge we should Expect aggregate proof of work sell Pressure to be over 80% reduced compared To last cycle uh at the top so like this Is like a bit number 80% last cycle we Were seeing miners dump on average Because everything with miners is about Averaging they can borrow money they can Delay selling they they have what we Call working Capital Solutions to Control when they dump in terms of the Timing so when we talk about Minor Dumping we don't literally mean miners Have to turn around and sell the day After we mean that they have a a Structural circumstance where they Eventually have to sell it's Non-optional with that in mind at the Top last cycle it was about a billion Dollars a week in proof of work cost These are Big Numbers you know how many How many friends and family have to go And you know put a whole whole bunch of Money into tokens at the top to offset This kind of structural dumping it's a Lot Giovani and so uh I think that you Know ethereum this cycle could see I my Personal prediction is uh 12,000 to 27,000 per ethereum within 18 to 30 Months that's the top top the tippy top The Pico top I just want to touch upon

Something that vitalic butterin said not Long ago he published a post where he is Saying that he would like ethereum to go Back to The Cypher Punk spirit so the Origins of crypto about Decentralization about peer-to-peer Transactions he noticed that there is a Process of over financialization of These assets and uh if we assume that There is this ETF coming up soon it Seems that ethereum is not going in the Direction that vital vitalic is um Advocating for what are your thoughts on That you know to be honest I think the ETF is Small Potatoes the over Financialization that vitalic cautions Us about is not so much related to the ETF as it is related to the pure focus Of ethereum application developers on Financial use cases they're always Trying to invent the next best Market The next best synthetic product um and And what vitalic is saying is guys we've Nailed Finance like we're doing it we're G to keep doing it we love our finance People how else can we help the world What are other ways that ethereum can Have impact we're really starting to see That now with things like foraster and Decentralized social um we're going to See I think a big rise in payments Personally I'm focused on payments now Payments are not really Finance you know Because you know payments payments help

At the edges they tend to help people Who who need it the most uh as opposed To finance being more about you know Richer folks managing their positions And so I I think that balik's call to Avoid over financialization says less About the ETF environment and and less About our relationship with trafi and More about an an inward reflection on What kinds of applications we choose to Develop during this period of strength For us I want to touch upon an imminent Heart Fork that we're going to see in a Matter of days or weeks which is called The dankun upgrade so can you tell us in A few simple words why this upgrade of Ethereum is so significant what Denon Adds the the main contribution that Everyone is so excited about is this new Type of data storage on the ethereum L1 Called blobs like a like a blob of data What that does is it it's going to Expand the data bandwidth of the Ethereum L1 by approximately uh seven Times 7x the way that ethereum has Chosen to scale is through a web of Chains so we have these layer 2 networks And like what is a layer two uh a layer Two is a blockchain that where the Security of funds in terms of the theft Of funds comes from ethereum security Itself and so you you have all this all These chains that connect to ethereum And then through ethereum they connect

To each other but in in order to achieve This this uh web of chains scaling uh Phenomenon it has to consume data Bandwidth on ethereum the problem for L2s is they go to the they go to the Block space supermarket and they want to Get like some block space off the shelf And they're so excited but the problem Is is there's all these corporations and High net worth individuals and protocols And Dows that are like super rich and They come in and they take all the block Space off the shelf because they're like Hungry for Block space and they can Afford to spend lots of money on it Because they they you know they're They're moving $10,000 a transaction or Or or a lot more and so the layer twos Are like man this this sucks I want to Scale I want to provide block space for You know tens of thousands and in one Day you know billions of users but I Have to pay all these high fees because I'm competing for Block space with all These whales and protocols well that's What the blob space changes because the 7x in in new data capacity that will Launch in March that 7x is a separate Supermarket that you can only use for Kind of uh bulk data purchases you can't Use that data to run a Unis swap Transaction on the ethereum layer one Chain you can't use that data to do a Bridging operation or or a dow

Governance votes or a domain name Registration that data is just bulk uh Uh snapshot data and it's it's designed To be ideal for the layer 2 web of Chains use case what really the outcome Of this discussion is is that even Though there's only a 7x increase in Bandwidth it should result in about 90 99% reduced Uh data costs which is not the only cost For layer twos but it's it's their Primary cost this Fork will result in 99% reduced data cost for layer twos Because they're no longer competing with All the whales who are trying to buy the Block space for UNIS Swap and all this Other stuff and so in in other words you Know it's a very exciting upgrade that Uh will dramatically scale ethereum's Layer 2 ecosystem and set the stage for Future scaling so after the transition To proof of stake uh a lot of people are Concerned about the over centralization Of the ecosystem in the hands of a few Powerful staking pools what would your Argument be uh to address these concerns Like the thought that ethereum has been Captured and and that uh it's going to Be censored and controlled and owned is Not true on the other hand the Lio Liquid staking token does have way too Much staking market share we wish it Would Reduce by about oneir from about 30% down to 20% and so there are some

Great competitive products coming now That are giving Lio a run for their Money so I think I think time will tell But uh with with any luck we will uh you Know conquer the the Lio the Lio market Share issue in the years to come so I Think I think the future of Decentralization for ethereum is is Bright and we've we've survived a lot of Trials already so you done you don't Agree with the argument that staking is Making Rich even even richer as a system Oh that's actually a common Misconception you see um the interesting Thing about staking is that if you stake $5 of ethereum through Lio or you stake One ethereum validator which to today Costs I don't know about 70,000 or if You stake a 100 validators you actually Get the same percentage return as Everybody else uh and so uh the rich Don't get richer on ethereum uh Disproportionately everybody who Stakes Gets the same percentage Roi return and That's actually not true of Bitcoin Mining in Bitcoin mining the Industrialization of mining means that People who have uh Superior access to State-of-the-art hardware and uh uh Greater uh economies of scale from Larger mining Farms to have lower fixed Costs and lower cost of Hardware from Bulk orders they actually experience Higher percentage returns it's always a

Pleasure to have you on our show it was A very cool and interesting conversation Thanks for having me out this show Gian We'll see you next [Music] [Music] Time