Dear Bankless Readers 🏴

If you ask Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, ether is… well, he’ll get back to you. While ether’s status remains stranded in U.S. airspace, there is no doubt that the blockchain ecosystem is primed for serious adoption speed.

In this round of articles, we put you squarely where the action is, first with a look at the impact of The Merge on Ethereum’s environmental track record, and then we take you through the emerging issues with ZK-rollups.

Speaking of rollups, in a piece shipped in conjunction with the BanklessDAO Writers Cohort, we get insights into the rise of app-specific rollups and Rollups-as-a-Service on Ethereum. Lastly, we look into the infrastructure and projects on Polkadot, one of the alternative L1s building an interoperable blockchain ecosystem.

This recap is a convenient way to access all our recent articles, but if you prefer to read Bankless Publishing content while it’s sizzling hot off the press, follow us on Twitter or come and join us in Discord.

Contributors: Frank America, Kornekt, Trewkat, Puretayo, HiroKennelly

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🏫 Crypto Basics Series

Each week we’re shipping some of our previous introductory web3 content on Mirror, enabling users to curate a web3 reference library by minting the articles as NFTs on Optimism.

✍️ Article Summaries

The Environmental Impact of The Merge

Author: Marathonmind | Editors: links and Trewkat | Designer: ab_colours

Ethereum's transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake has drastically cut down its energy usage. In this article, we learn how this change reduces Ethereum’s impact on the environment and how it may fuel large-scale adoption of blockchain technology. Want to learn more? Check out the full article!

"Collection of data and research on energy consumption after The Merge is still in the early days. Gauging the actual environmental impact will take time, but it’s safe to say that Ethereum’s PoS is a big step in the right direction."

ZK-Rollups Transform the Trilemma to Dilemma

Author: tommasogualtieri.eth | Editors: Hiro Kennelly and Trewkat | Designer: Chameleon

The Blockchain Trilemma has been a tough nut to crack in network architecture. However, with the emergence of scaling solutions, possibilities to finally overcome this obstacle are within reach. This article explains how the ZK-rollup race on Ethereum transforms the trilemma into a dilemma, pitting performance against compatibility.

"Vitalik Buterin, in his article on the different types of ZK-EVMs, identified them as the ideal solution for scalability, while anticipating the need for a long and complex development process. On that occasion, Vitalik gave rise to what I refer to as ‘the Dilemma’  —  the fact that ZKs require developers to balance two competing performance metrics."

Into the Cosmos: The App-Chain Thesis Enters Ethereum

Author: Liam McDonald  | Editor and Designer: Trewkat

The advent of Rollups-as-a-Service on Ethereum is blazing the trail for customizability, modularity, and user-based optimization. This is leading to the rise of app-specific chains — Layer 2s and 3s built specifically for use by single applications. In this article, we explore how this rising trend on Ethereum has always been the very thesis of Ethereum's counterpart, Cosmos. Dig into the article to learn more!

"The emergence of app-specific rollups on Ethereum is very telling of the desires of today’s developers and users. Builders want a completely customizable tech stack and refuse to be bound to the limitations of the Ethereum Layer 1."

Alternative L1s: Polkadot

Author: 0xzh | Editor: Trewkat | Designer: Tonytad

Polkadot is one of those Layer 1 blockchains that took cues from Ethereum and is aiming to build a more diverse and interoperable blockchain ecosystem. This article examines the infrastructure set up by Polkadot and also touches on several projects that are already running on the blockchain.

"Polkadot was designed to solve challenges faced in other blockchain ecosystems, namely interoperability, customization, scalability, on-chain governance, self-upgradability, and security."

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