Crypto && Coffee 100
- 7 minsFull Review after 100 Shots of Espresso:
We have finally hit Crypto && Coffee #100!! This newsletter originally started back in 2018, but revamped itself in December of 2019. Since then, the crypto ecosystem has exploded in adoption, and we are still so early on! Below is a quick recap of everything that has happened over the past 2 years and then back to our normal weekly recap. Onwards and up! 🚀
- Bitcoin Lightning Network jumped from ~4K nodes with channels in 2019 with a network capacity of 800 BTC to roughly 17,783 nodes with channels in 2021 with a full network capacity of 3,172 BTC. With this, we have seen an overall adoption of LN in exchanges such as Kraken, Bitfinex, SouthXchange, OKCoin, Bitstamp, River Financial, and more. The move to exchanges using Lightning will only continue to grow.
- Ethereum has successfully surpassed multiple upgrades with the largest being the launch of the eth2 Beacon Chain, the insane rise in value of the eth2 Deposit Contract, Altair upgrades, and now the upcoming Merge.
- Litecoin pushing forward on MWEB integration to bring privacy to a new sidechain.
- BitcoinCash upgrade which caused a split between BCH and BCHA.
- Layer-2, which wasn’t really around two years ago, has become an easy choice for DeFi users with the launch of Optimism, Polygon, Arbitrum, Loopring, zkSync, Hermez Network, StarkEx enabled services, and more. In addition, the rise of EVM-compatible PoS chains such as BSC.
- Cross-Chain interops are now live with users branching between chains seamlessly in a non-custodial manner. On-boarding and off-boarding from any major chain is now as easy as any other normal transaction.
- The rise and pump of NFTs and the usability of ERC-721 and ERC-1155 across the ecosystem.
- Mainstream adoption continues with El Salvador making Bitcoin legal tender, exchanges linking with Apple Pay and Google Pay, Strike API being integrated into Twitter, Visa unveils proposal for a Universal Payment Channel, Mastercard partnering with Gemini and others as network payment partner, Venmo allows users to buy and sell crypto, regulators coming to the table to discuss adoption of crypto and acceptance of it in various services, and so much more! I know I’m missing a lot of things, but everyday is a new day in crypto!!
Technology Recap:
Bitcoin:
- Lisa Neigut started a thread on the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list regarding eliminating the P2P transaction relay network and having users submit transactions to miners directly. Pieter Wuille argued that it also gives miners a privileged view of the network which would previously be hidden from public view prior to confirmation.
- Olaoluwa Osuntokun of Lightning Labs publishes a summary of the various topics discussed during the most recent LN protocol dev meeting in Zurich.
- The Lightning Network continues its growth which has already doubled in network capacity in 2021 with tons of optimizations coming in the next quarter and 2022.
Ethereum:
- Danny Ryan publishes the latest on Ethereum’s consensus layer with focus on attacks, mitigations, timelines on the upcoming Merge upgrade and more!
- Erigon announces their Beta1 announcement which will include migration of the backend database from LMDB to MDBX, support for mining/block composition, and a separable consensus engine.
- Vitalik Buterin publishes a post on Crypto Cities which focuses on interesting and radical experiments that are being executed currently on bringing decentralized ecosystems to current civic leaders and actual places.
- Danny Ryan shares that a new Merge testnet, Kintsugi, is coming soon!
Other Chains:
- Optimism jumps into EVM Equivalence and how they believe it will become the next universal standard across layer-2s.
- Maker Governance has onboarded Lido staked ETH (stETH) as a collateral type!
- StarkWare announces their strategic partnership with Argent! This join commitment to building StarkNet reflects the shared vision between the two.
- Zcash celebrates their 5th Birthday!
- Yield Protocol V2 is now live in Beta! The new features include multiple new collateral types (ETH, WBTC, DAI, USDC, and more), multiple stablecoins to borrow (USDC, DAI, and others), improved use of gas, improved liquidity provider experience, and more.
- A new organization, 0xPARC, is announced which aims at supporting decentralized application R&D. Their aim is to foster a community of researchers for Ethereum and the decentralized ecosystem.
- Ethereum researcher publishes how reorgs work in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) based systems.
- Banteg of Yearn Finance posts a thread on an easy-to-understand explanation of the recent Cream exploit.
- Aztec has issued a $50,000 bug bounty to community members Xin Gao and Onur Kilic for jointly uncovering a double-spend vulnerability.
- Victor Tran, co-Founder of Kyber Network, displays real time DeFi activity monitoring.
- DeversiFI releases a full thread on their latest updates across their platform.
- Graaf One, a Bitcoin Lightning Network-based brokerage in Canada has updated their UI with full insights into the Lightning Network.
- Multi-Wallet is now live which allows users to display NFTs from multiple wallets on Gallery.
- Ribbon Finance announces Ribbon Treasury, a new product line that helps DAO treasuries generate yield on their native assets.
- FOX has been listed on THORChain!
- Phonon, a powerful new scaling and privacy primitive, announces the successful transfer of the world’s first phonon! The protocol allows users to transaction off-chain, endowing any crypto with all the properties of cash.
Mainstream Recap:
- Coinbase shares that in Q3, Coinbase Ventures made a record of 49 investments. The full report and takeaways are here.
- Umbrel, the company behind supplying Bitcoin and Lightning node software for users to spin up their own nodes/servers has raised $3M in seed round to get a server in every home!
- MetaMask now supports NFTs with IPFS-linked images so that NFT images can survive after the original creator stops hosting it.
- FTX leads a $150M funding round in African payments firm Chipper Cash. The latest raise values the firm at slightly over $2B and comes after Chipper raised $100M in May in a Series C round led by SVB Capital.
- Various threads have been popping up across the ecosystem regarding proper mechanisms to secure one’s crypto and be vigilant. Coinbase shares how hackers are getting smarter, Anish of Paradigm published a thread on different steps one should take to secure their crypto, and others.
- Alchemy, one of the world’s leading developer platform for blockchain and web3, raises $250M at $3.5B valuation in a Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- Avalanche developers and investors form a $200M “Blizzard” investment fund which is an incubation fund which includes participation from Avalanche Foundation, Ava Labs, Polychain Capital, Three Arrows Capital, and more.
- The Wall Street Journal publishes an article on how Digital Currency Group Inc. is aiming to have about $1B in revenue from its wholly owned businesses this year.
- Spruce, a digital identity company that reimagines trusted interactions for enterprises and governments has raised $7.5M in a round led by Ethereal Ventures and Electric Capital. Spruce is committed to building the foundational layers of the Web3 ecosystem, which encompasses a myriad of use cases relating to portable data storage, keys, and open platforms.
This Week’s Cup of Coffee:
This week, we are going back to one of the first roasts that I posted about which is Black Cat Espresso from Intelligentsia Coffee in Chicago, IL. Black Cat is a sweet and syrupy espresso blend that tastes awesome in any drink of choice. Cheers!!
Jake Tarnow
Not Your Average Engineer