This is written on Thursday because I'm away for the weekend, so it won't include any late-week news.
Let's see what we have for this week's roundup.
Week on Hive
Hive Core Developers Meeting
Our Hive core devs had another meeting, and if you are interested, there is both a recording and a written transcript of it you can consult. High-level, among the topics, we have recurrent transfers, HAF, Hivemind, HiveD, Ubuntu 22, tests and bug fixes, GNS, CLI wallet, Hive OpenStats.
@howo/core-dev-meeting-48
One of the regular participants in these meetings, Gandalf "the Hive wizard" published some updates regarding his witness setups and other connected information. He also began with some considerations about ChatGPT.
@gtg/time-for-updates-v1-27-4-is-here
Leofinance Surpassing MAU Target After MAU Target
Khal mentioned in the latest Leofinance AMA that Leofinance had a record MAU in March of 1400, both blogging and using Threads, almost reaching their Q2 target.
He also talked about different plans for Threads in the future, like how to incentivize engagement or why would/should people buy or hold LEO.
On Friday's update, the wallet page will be added to the alpha version of Leofinance.
This is the recording for the AMA.
Also this week, the Leofinance team published the Cub Finance Monthly Burn Report for March.
Splinterlands Updates
This week Splinterlands implemented the change voted by the SPS shakeholders to only distribute land SPS rewards for surveyed land instead of any type of land.
For guilds, there is now a messaging system for managing applications and invites (for now).
You can learn about the two and other minor updates from the weekly release notes.
Something else which may stir some interest is that a certain celebrity believes Splinterlands owes him some money and sued the company for breaking the contract with him. Bulldog shared the information:
@bulldog1205/oowizmqm
Golem Overlord Keeps Growing
... and crossed this week 1500 players in 48 hours since launch (multi-accounts are allowed, so that doesn't translate into 1500 people).
Updates also keep rolling for the game and there were several posts and discord messages describing them. This is just one of the early ones:
@golem.overlord/we-passed-1500-golemancers-in-the-first-48-hours--a-lot-of-development-updates
If you'd like to join this passive game (it isn't free to play, it costs 20 SWAP.HIVE), this is my link.
Back to the Basics
While the world is breaking up into poles again, Hive can do the opposite, at a small scale, when we return to the basic necessities and fulfilling them. This short clip says a lot:
@spknetwork.chat/znlejedgor
Week in the Crypto World
Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade
This week in the crypto space was dominated by the event of upgrading the Ethereum blockchain, codenamed Shanghai (I hope that name is not a reason for the SEC to go after them, lol).
The upgrade went on as scheduled, and unlocked withdrawals of staked Ethereum (before this hard fork staked Ethereum couldn't be unstaked). This is an article covering the topic extensively:
https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/04/12/ethereums-shanghai-upgrade-activates-starting-new-era-of-staking-withdrawals/
Fiat On and Off Ramps via Metamask
Fiat on and off ramps for the crypto sphere have been dropping like flies recently after favorable banks either went bankrupt or were persuaded it's in their interest to avoid crypto.
In this context, the news of adding fiat on and off ramps by Metamask I believe it's kind of surprising... But when there is demand, the offer soon follows.
Here's an article talking about this:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/metamask-launches-new-fiat-purchase-function-for-cryptocurrency
Twitter Agreement with eToro to Trade Crypto and Stocks
Twitter partnered with eToro to offer their users crypto and stock trading via eToro.
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/04/13/etoro-to-offer-crypto-trading-directly-to-twitter-users/
I believe this is mostly a big announcement for eToro and for the direction Twitter is heading. Those familiar with eToro know these are not really crypto trading, but instead, fiat trading based on CFD (call-for-difference) contracts. But still, more indirect exposure for and to crypto.