Crypto && Coffee 116
- 5 minsTechnology Recap:
Bitcoin:
- Blockstream features their mining services in regard to co-location, energy efficiency, and investment.
- Several developers on the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list have been discussing various ideas around improving Bitcoin’s Script and Tapscript languages with new opcodes to provide different loop-like behavior and more.
- Blockstream releases their v0.1.33 firmware update for the open-source hardware wallet, Jade.
- Gloria Zhao posted to the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list on improving the current Replace-By-Fee (RBF) policy. She summarized everything in this gist.
Ethereum:
- Kiln, the next iteration of the Ethereum Merge testnets is now live!
- Ben Edgington shares the latest in the Execution Layer with focus on the Beacon Chain, Kiln testnet for The Merge, proper community feedback and more!
- Preston Van Loon, co-Founder of Prysmatic Labs, notes the importance of client diversity and the need for developers to try various clients to ensure security is diverse as we move towards The Merge.
- A Solidity dev gives a fun thread on privacy and whether or not TornadoCash and others are truly private.
- Erigon releases their latest beta release, v2022.03.01-beta, with focus on updates to various calls, fixes to P2P discovery, updated mainnet bootnodes and more!
- The latest naming for the next Execution Layer has been selected, Paris. This naming follows the devcon-city naming convention with a slight twist. The Merge overall will consist of both the Execution Layer (EL) and Consensus Layer (CL).
- Vitalik Buterin shares how trusted setups work in the realm of zk-SNARKs.
Other Chains:
- Sommelier, the co-processor for the Ethereum VM on Cosmos has released their documents.
- Eli Ben-Sasson of StarkWare shares a decentralization proposal for StarkNet.
- Crescent Network is announced! Crescent comes from the creators of GravityDEX and aims to be a DeFi Hub that invites users to explore the limitless possibilities of digital assets.
- StarkNet Alpha v0.8.0 presents the initial version of the fee mechanism with new API calls, performance improvements, and layer-1 to layer-2 cancellation.
- Optimism shares their path towards decentralization and the dangers of staying centralized and upgrading keys.
- ZigZag Exchange announces that they have started development on a private payments network called ZigZag InvisibL3.
- Last week was the first time that StarkEx had more transactions than mainnet Ethereum! StarkEx had 11.6M transactions vs. 8.5M.
- Olympus Pro is expanding to Optimism with THALES/WETH G-UNI bonds now live!
- Iron Fish shares the latest updates on their incentivized testnet and next phases.
- Synthetic assets are now available on THORChain!
- 1kx publishes their views on WalletConnect and the protocols between wallets and dApps.
- SushiSwap’s Trident is now live on Polygon!
- Band Protocol has launched on Osmosis with a BAND/OSMO pool! This allows BAND and OSMO holders to provide liquidity to earn fees and swap tokens on a DEX natively in the Cosmos ecosystem.
- CoinDesk dives into what Espresso is focused on and the importance of safeguarding one’s privacy in the world of Web3.
- Mina Protocol releases an updated name for snapps with focus on zero-knowledge based offerings.
- ZigZag Exchange shares their new zkSync <> Polygon bridge! Users can now send ETH on zkSync or WETH on Polygon to the bridge contract to trigger a bridge to the other chain!
Mainstream Recap:
- Stripe now supports crypto businesses: exchanges, on-ramps, wallets, NFT marketplaces, and more!
- On March, 9th, 2022 Dubai adopted its first law meant to regulate the operations of cryptocurrencies and digital assets.
- Patrick Hansen dives into the recent vote against the POW-ban via the ECON committee of the EU Parliament.
- Global cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, is expanding its operations in the UAE by receiving a virtual asset exchange (VAX) license in Dubai.
- President Biden releases an Executive Order on ensuring proper development of digital assets.
- Russia creates their own TLS certificate authority to bypass sanctions.
- Aptos, the ex-Meta team who previously worked on Diem, have raised $200M in a strategic round led by a16z crypto with participation from Multicoin Capital, Katie Huan, 3 Arrows Capital, ParaFi Capital, IRONGREY, Hashed, Variant, Tiger Global, BlockTower, FTX Ventures, Paxos and Coinbase Ventures.
- The Crypto Council for Innovation share’s their statement in response to President Biden’s EO.
- Michael Chobanian, founder of KUNA, shares the latest stats on crypto donations to aid Ukraine.
- Okcoin is partnering with Stacks and other venture partners to form the next chapter of Bitcoin, named The Bitcoin Odyssey.
- Samourai Wallet issues a response to the UK’s NCA announcing a warning on crypto mixers.
- Otis has been acquired by investing platform Public.com. Through joining forces, Public will become the first investing platform where any investor can build a modern portfolio across stocks, crypto, and alternatives in a single place.
- Kraken to distribute over $10M in aid to clients impacted by the Ukraine crisis.
- CoinDesk reports that Binance signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to acquire Brazilian securities brokerage Sim;paul Investimentos.
- Stellar Development Foundation, SDF, launches a $30M Fund to power startups leveraging blockchain technology.
- WalletConnect raises a $11M Series A to build out the messaging layer for Web3! The funding round was co-led by USV and 1kx to help scale wallet interoperability and develop a generalized messaging layer that will allow different WalletConnect wallets to message one another.
- Crypto startup, Gauntlet, raises $23.8M in a Series B funding round led by Ribbit Capital. This combined funding brings Gauntlet to a total valuation of $1B with major focus on on-chain protocol management.
- Webcash, a new Proof-of-Work (PoW) digital currency protocol based on e-cash, has been announced aiming to enable decentralized and instantaneous payments at the cost of a trusted centralized server.
- Agave and Hundred Finance were exploited on March, 15th, 2022 on Gnosis Chain. The underlying reason for the hack was due to the bridged tokens on Gnosis being non-standard with a hook that calls the token receiver on every call. Thus, enabling reentrancy.
This Week’s Cup of Coffee:
This week, we are heading to Portland, OR for a cup of Stereo Seasonal Blend from Heart Coffee Roasters. This Colombian and Ethiopian blend yields notes of dark chocolate, honey, and hints of mandarin! Sip up and enjoy throughout the day!!
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