MERGE: The second biggest cryptocurrency just changed forever

9/15/22 7:00PM

MERGE

‍For those with crypto-loving colleagues or friends, you may be sick of hearing about "the merge". For the uninitiated however, there was some big news in the crypto corner of the internet this week as Ethereum underwent a transformation in a bid to reduce the complexity and energy consumption of the world's second-largest cryptocurrency.

Developers successfully executed on the plan, known as the "Ethereum merge", which fundamentally changes how the cryptocurrency validates transactions on the Ethereum chain. The move, away from a type of blockchain that uses "proof-of-work" towards an architecture using "proof-of-stake", is set to reduce the need for power-hungry computers. According to crypto researchers, the change is set to reduce Ethereum's energy consumption by some 99.95%.

That's a big deal because, like Bitcoin, Ethereum has historically used an enormous amount of energy to validate its transactions. Digiconomist estimates that the energy consumption of the two combined would rank 27th on a list of the world's most energy-intensive countries.

‍Ethereum > Bitcoin?

‍After skyrocketing in the last 2 years, cryptocurrencies have fallen back to Earth in 2022, losing a combined $2 trillion in market value — and Ethereum has been no exception. The total market value of all Ethereum is currently somewhere around half of Bitcoin's. Time will tell whether this major infrastructure change will see Ethereum finally unseat its rival.

Jon Keegan

Here’s what to look for in today’s Microsoft earnings report

All eyes will be on Microsoft’s Azure cloud revenue growth, and just how much it’s increasing its capital expenditure.

Millie Giles

INSTA PLUS MAX

Meta is testing out premium subscriptions on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp

Ahead of its earnings, expected after the bell today, Meta has announced plans to trial a paid tier on its apps.

Meta Apps - Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Threads

Rani Molla9h

Amazon cuts another 16,000 roles after laying off 14,000 workers in October

Amazon announced Wednesday that it’s cutting 16,000 roles across the company, having laid off 14,000 workers only three months ago.

“As I shared in October, we’ve been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology Beth Galetti wrote in the press release. “While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now.”

CEO Andy Jassy previously said that the October layoffs were “about culture” rather than AI-related cost cutting. Galetti says layoffs, now totaling 30,000, won’t become a regular occurrence.

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm — where we announce broad reductions every few months. That’s not our plan.”

Update on our organization

CEO Andy Jassy previously said that the October layoffs were “about culture” rather than AI-related cost cutting. Galetti says layoffs, now totaling 30,000, won’t become a regular occurrence.

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm — where we announce broad reductions every few months. That’s not our plan.”

Jon Keegan24h

Anthropic reportedly doubles current fundraising round to $20 billion

Anthropic has doubled its current fundraising round to $20 billion on strong investor demand, according reporting from the Financial Times. The new fundraising round would value the company at a staggering $350 billion. That’s up 91% from September, when it raised at a valuation of $183 billion.

The company reportedly received interest totaling 5x to 6x its original $10 billion fundraising goal, and it’s expected to haul in several billion more than that tally before the current round closes.

Anthropic’s success with enterprise customers and the popularity of its Claude Code product are boosting the company’s momentum as it chases the current valuation leader of the AI startup pack: OpenAI.

Anthropic doubles VC fundraising to $20bn on surging investor demand

Produce At Whole Foods Market's Flagship Store

Amazon says it’s doubling down on opening Whole Foods stores. That sounds familiar.

The company says it’ll open 100 Whole Foods locations in the next few years. That sounds similar to plans Whole Foods’ CEO laid out in 2024 for opening 30 stores a year. Since then, it appears to have added 14, total.

Rani Molla1/27/26