🍪 The merge is in sight

Rise and shine, friends. This is Bite Sized Beta, your friend in tech that hits you up the second the new Beyonce album leaks.

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Ok let's get to it. We’ve got a lot on deck today, but don’t worry, it’s all bite-sized, because…. you know..

In the oven this week:

• 🤑 The merge is in sight

• 📊 Poll results: is the bottom in?

• 🍪 5 headlines from the week

• 🍫 Chocolate chips: 3 fun finds

• 😂 Snickerdoodles, because we never skip the memes

FRESHLY BAKED

THE MERGE IS COMING

If you're like us and have even a crumb of Ethereum, you've probably been waiting for "the merge" longer than you’ve been alive.

What’s “the merge?”

It’s a change that switches Ethereum from a proof-of-work to proof-of-stake system. If this sounds like mumbo jumbo to you, all you gotta know is - it makes ETH a lot faster, less energy intensive, and more scalable. 

The problem is, actually doing it is like changing a plane's engine mid-flight. The merge has been notoriously delayed for years.

But this year, they’ve successfully made it through 2 test runs: Ropsten (June 8) and Sepolia (July 6).

Now, the last test before the real deal is coming up. It’s called Goerli, and it starts as early as this weekend. (Whoever thought of these names needs to be kicked out of the marketing department immediately.)

If all goes well, the actual merge will happen on Sept 19th. ETH’s already up big since the announcement, but it could go up a lot more. (BEFORE YOU COME AT US, THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE!!!)

Let me explain.

Today, miners buy expensive equipment to help verify transactions on the network. They get ETH as reward for doing this, but also need to sell that ETH immediately in order to offset the cost of the mining.

The merge gets rid of mining, so no miners should mean less sell pressure, which means.... ETH goes up???

Either way, Vitalik (inventor of Ethereum) says the merge isn’t priced in yet: “I expect that the merge is not going to be priced in, by which I mean not just in market terms, but in psychological and narrative terms.”

There ya have it, folks. Do with that what you will.

POLL RESULTS

THE VERDICT: IS THE BOTTOM IN?

We love to speculate here at Bite Sized Beta, so we asked you to give us your prediction on whether the worst is over for the stock market.

Well, it looks like the optimists can't come to the phone right now:

Bummer… guess we’ll have to keep doing the alt-coin quizzes on Coinbase.

COOKIE CRUMBS

5 BITE SIZED TREATS

CHOCOLATE CHIPS

3 FUN FINDS

Why’s this section called chocolate chips?

Well, it’s kinda like eating cereal and picking out the marshmallows or the dried strawberries. Just the golden nuggets to impress your friends with.

• For those of us that can’t shell out half a month’s rent for a Michelin star meal but still wanna be bougie, here are the 10 most affordable Michelin-starred restaurants in the U.S.

• Wanna know what books guys like Bill Gates, Zuck, and Elon have recommended? This site collects their recs from across the web. You can even see the most popular books between their lists.

• A fun Twitter account that tracks celebrities’ private jet trips with FAA data, like this 17 min flight by Kylie Jenner 🙄

Speaking of private jets…

Guess which celebrity’s private jet created the most carbon emissions this year?

Answer’s at the bottom of this email.

SNICKERDOODLES

THURSDAY MEMES FOR THE WEEKEND

That's all for this week! See ya on the flip side.

ANSWER

Taylor Swift! This year, she created 1185 times more emissions than the average person does annually. It’s pollution (Taylor’s Version).

What'd you think about this email?

• 🍪🍪🍪 Top notch!

• 🍪🍪 Meh... could use more milk

• 🍪 Undercooked, do better