Crypto && Coffee 119

Cryptocurrency Technology Recap:

Bitcoin:

• BitcoinBitcoin is a digital currency (also called crypto-currency) … More Core v23.0 has been released! This release includes wallet updates with Taproot support, descriptor wallets set as default, ability to indefinitely freeze a UTXO, updates to P2P communications and more!

• C-Lightning has been rebranded to Core Lightning (CLN). Blockstream aims that CLN will better communicate their focus on interoperability, specification work, and ongoing implementation with priority to correctness and robustness.

Litecoin:

• Taproot has finally locked in at block heightBlock height represents the number of blocks that were confi… More 2249856! This means, Taproot will activate on mainnetThe term is used to identify a realnet/mainet blockchain fro… More in roughly 2 weeks. MWEB signaling is currently at ~95% and should lock in this period (2-weeks) and then activate on mainnet in 4 weeks.

Ethereum:

• Erigon shares their latest beta release with an in depth look at their multi-stage sync process and the history of the Silkworm project. Further documents have been released as well as they take aim at The Merge and PoS.

• Erigon releases their major Alpha release, please note that one cannot upgrade from Beta to Alpha. Full re-sync is needed.

Other Chains:

• Optimism introduces the Optimism Collective, an experiment in digital governance at scale which includes communities, companies and citizens united through Optimism and governed by The Citizens’ House and Token House. Yes, there will be a multi-round airdrop.

• Web3Auth announces a collaboration with StarkWare to eliminate the need for seed phrases for all dApps and wallets being built on StarkNet and StarkEx.

• Ignite, formerly Tendermint, shared that they were unbonding 7.6M ATOM tokens on April 13th, 2022 to further decentralize Cosmos.

• Uniswap announces the launch of Swap Widget, which allows users to seamlessly swap tokens anywhere across the web and is now also on OpenSea.

• The Electric Coin Company releases v4.7.0 which marks a major milestone on the path towards NU5. This release enables full support for the Orchard shielded protocol and Unified Addresses on testnet.

• BinanceUS supported the Zcash network upgrade which took place on April 14th, 2022 at blockBlocks hold batches of valid transactions that are hashed an… More height 1633066.

• Lido Finance gives an update on The Merge and a full community update on their roadmap towards decentralization.

• Tornado Cash shares that they use Chainalysis’ oracle contract to block OFAC sanctioned addresses from accessing the dApp.

• Forta Network unveils FORTA token. FORTA will act as the cryptoeconomic structure to secure Forta, Web3’s real-time security and operational monitoring network.

• OpenZeppelin introduces Contracts Wizard for Cairo! This is an interactive generator to bootstrap smart contractsWhat are smart contracts? A smart contract is a computer pro… More in Cairo.

• Token Flow announces a strategic partnership with StarkWare to bring data and analytics tools to the Starknet ecosystem.

• Foundry now supports simulating a live transaction locally, with full access to tracing, debugging, and more!

Hacks | Vulnerabilities | Exploits:

• Beanstalk Farms protocol was exploited via flash loan for ~$181M in an exploit which gave the attacker ~$76M. The flash loan was executed after getting two fake proposals pushed through governance. Full thread from Mudit Gupta here. PeckShield shared that all stolen funds were immediately laundered through Tornado Cash.

• Daniel Von Fange shares that ERC-777’s reenter differently when sending coins vs. receiving them. ERC-777’s standard for callbacks on ERC-20s adds a new layer of vulnerability through PRE-TRANSFER hook.

• MetaMask discloses the ways someone can phish iCloud credentials which protects MetaMask user’s keys/password-encrypted vault which controls all user funds.

• Bored Ape Yacht Club’s (BAYC) Instagram and Discord was hacked, sharing a fraudulent minting link which allowed the attackers to compromise user’s wallets and net ~13.7M USD through 50+ NFTs. All events over the past year affecting BAYC come as a surprise to some as the company/brand is worth ~$3B.

• As of April 26, 2022, roughly 65% of the stolen funds from the Ronin Network exploit have been transferred from the exploiter’s wallet through Tornado Cash.

Mainstream Recap:

• The highly anticipated launch of crypto-focused ETFs in Australia has been halted with less than 24 hours before anticipated launch. The ETFs in question include: 21Shares Ethereum ETF and 21Shares Bitcoin ETF through the Cosmos Asset Management’s ETF.

• Fidelity Investments plans to allow investors to put a bitcoin account on their 401(k)s, the first major retirement-plan provider to do so.

• Exmo exits Russia and sells their Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan user base to an unnamed buyer.

• Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) licenses Kraken to operate their crypto exchange in the financial free zone.

• The OCC issues consent order against Anchorage Digital Bank.

• Andre Cronje, previously founder of Yearn Finance, Keep3r Finance, and architect at Ethereum Foundation writes about the Rise and Fall of Crypto Culture.

• Andreessen Horowitz announces a16z crypto research, a multi-disciplinary lab that will work closely with their portfolio and others towards solving the important problems in the ecosystem.

• Oasis.app announces the closing of their Series A funding round, bringing $6M from Libertus Capital, Road Capital, and various angel investors.

• Leading crypto projects have come together to offer $7M in prizes to teams innovating using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), a privacy-preserving scaling technology. The contest is supported by 21 web3 organizations including: Polygon, Polkadot, Mina, Ethereum Foundation, Aleo, Espresso Systems, and more!

• Coinbase launches their Coinbase NFTNFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. Contrary to a BTC which i… More platform into beta.

• Spruce announces that they have raised $34M in a Series A round led by a16z to unbundle the login process for a user-controlled web.

• Blockworks shares that Terra’s UST is now the third largest stablecoinStablecoins maybe privately issued cryptocurrency or algorit… More.

• 0x Labs has raised $70M in a Series B round led by Greylock to continue expanding Web3’s core exchange infrastructure.

This Week’s Cup of Coffee:

This week, we are headed to San Diego, CA for a cup of Papa Bear from Mostra Coffee which is a Philippine roast which yields flavors of rich chocolate and caramel. Sip up and enjoy!!