<strong>Ethereum Merges Successfully, Binance Partners With Google Cloud, Old Mutual Partners With ZARP</strong>

Ethereum Merges Successfully

Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency in the world, has completed the merge. It has transitioned from a proof of work to a proof-of-stake blockchain, a feat that took the team five years to complete. The Ethereum network will no longer depend on mining and will be 99% environmentally friendly. 

“And we finalized! Happy merge all! This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today,” posted Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum. 

This newer version of Ethereum should have faster and cheaper transactions. It will also reduce worldwide electricity consumption by 0.2%. The Ethereum network presently supports tens of billions of dollars in digital assets, applications, and decentralized finance (DeFi) systems, none of which appear to have been harmed by the move to proof of stake.

Binance Partners With Google Cloud 

BNB Chain, Binance’s smart contract blockchain, has partnered with Google Cloud to accelerate the growth of Web3 startups. The two companies will collaborate to provide infrastructure, cloud computing credits, mentorship, and technical support to early-stage startups. 

“We look forward to collaborating with BNB Chain to provide Web3 builders with the cleanest cloud infrastructure on which to develop and scale their applications. This builds on our existing work to support our customers’ needs in developing, transacting, storing value, and deploying new products on blockchain-based platforms,” said James Tromans, Director of Web3 at Google Cloud.

This partnership will see over 1300 active BNB Chain DApps get support from both platforms. The BNB Chain was formed in February 2022 by the merger of the BNB Beacon Chain and the BNB Smart Chain. The blockchain network is Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible, enabling the construction of multichain ecosystems.

Old Mutual Partners With ZARP

ZARP, a South African rand-denominated stablecoin, has appointed Old Mutual Wealth to manage its cash reserves. Old Mutual Wealth is one of the leading South African financial services groups. The partnership is to bolster trust in the stablecoin, which reportedly has over $3 million tokens in tokens. 

ZARP tokens provide cryptocurrency users with blockchain access to rand value and the ability to spend rands on DeFi protocols.