Crypto && Coffee 120

Cryptocurrency Technology Recap

Bitcoin:

• In the latest BitcoinBitcoin is a digital currency (also called crypto-currency) … More build, deployers now have a full example bitcoin.conf shipped with each release! If needed, there is also now a script to generate one yourself.
• As of block 735000, we are halfway through Bitcoin’s 4th mining epoch and less than two years away from the annual inflation rate dropping below 1%.

Litecoin:

• Taproot was activated on Litecoin mainnetThe term is used to identify a realnet/mainet blockchain fro… More at blockBlocks hold batches of valid transactions that are hashed an… More 2257920 on May 5th, 2022.
• In addition to Taproot, MWEB is locked-in at block 2257920, meaning MWEB will go live in two weeks on roughly May 19th, 2022.
• David Burkett drops the latest recap on the final MWEB development work and v021.2.
• In order to run MWEB, users will need to update their nodes to Litecoin v0.21.2.

Ethereum:

• Ben Edgington shares quick notes on the recent Ethereum devs consensusConsensus is a mechanism, usually used by most nodes on the … More call with focus on the mainnet shadow fork 3 and more!
• Erigon shares a deep dive on their core stage sync controls and flow within the Erigon client. In addition, they released a new Alpha version!
• Trenton Van Epps of the Ethereum Foundation dives into the path towards The Merge with focus on the user layer!
• Project Sunshine was launched to monitor Ethereum’s decentralization.

Other Blockchains:

• StarkWare announces the StarkGate Alpha release on mainnet! This allows users to now move funds from Ethereum mainnet to StarkNet Alpha!!
• Optimism shares their latest Optimism Bridge revamp with Warp Speed, a custodial bridge enabling one of the cheapest deposit fees of ETH in the ecosystem.
• New research from Dan Robinson and Gordon Liao show that Uniswap V3 has deeper liquidity in ETH/USD, ETH/BTC, and other pairs than leading CEXs including Coinbase and Binance.
• Informal Systems shares updates on how developers will be empowered to launch in the Cosmos ecosystem through leveraging Interchain Security.
• Optimism is officially live on Hashflow! Users can now easily swap between a low-cost, lightning fast layer-2 and other EVM-based chains with MEV resistance and guaranteed execution.
• Josh Stark of Ethereum Foundation writes on the importance of why crypto matters.
• dYdX announces that their iOS app is now available to the public! This makes dYdX one of the first DeFiDecentralized Finance (DeFi) removes financial institutions … More protocols to launch a dedicated mobile app and put UX on par with centralized exchanges.
• The Electric Coin Company releases v5.0.0 with support for NU5 activation on mainnet, scheduled for block heightBlock height represents the number of blocks that were confi… More 1687104 on May 31st, 2022.
• Ren releases their latest Development Report with focus on RenBridge V3, RenVM, and a fee fix for LUNA.
• Giza is introduced! A fully on-chain machine learning model inference powered by StarkNet.
• Georgios Konstantopoulos announces the latest Foundry release which now includes Anvil – a blazing-fast local testnet nodeA node, in the world of digital currency, is a computer that… More implementation in Rust!
• Rainbow introduces RainbowKit, a developer kit for connecting wallets to Web3!
• Starkswap is proud to introduce Iron Fleet together with Yearn Finance.
• Curve Finance shares that apparently Binance and Uniswap were out of USDT liquidity for a short period. They told users to swap in 3pool.

Hacks | Vulnerabilities | Exploits:

• Someone shared a few articles in regard to how Chainlink oracles across all chains mainly appear to rely on solely a single 3-of-20 multisig.
• A vulnerability was found in Solana rBPF versions 0.2.26 and 0.2.27 which may lead to the wrong execution pass resulting in loss of funds.
• A community vote last week for seized JUNO tokens to move to a community fund went awry when the funds went to the wrong address due to a programming error.
• BlockSec identifies the same vulnerability in the Nerve Bridge incident to attack Saddle Finance. In total, 4,900 ETH were under attack but 1,360 were saved.
• Price oracle manipulation bites Fortress Protocol with a $3M loss on BSC. The stolen funds were directly bridged and deposited into Tornado Cash.

Mainstream Recap:

• Terraform Labs (TFL) removed 150M UST from Curve to get ready to deploy into 4pool next week. Minutes later, a freshly funded address bridged 84M of UST to Ethereum (before TFL removed liquidity), roughly 4-minutes later it dumped the UST triggering the massive sell-off. After the imbalances started to happen, TFL removed an additional 100M UST to lessen the imbalance. As UST started to depeg, an unknown actor started dumping ETH and buying UST. As UST started trading below peg, they were able to make profit without optics. UST continues to drop and maintain instability.
• Emin Gün Sirer, Founder and CEO of Ava Labs, shares his thoughts on fully-collateralized fiat stablecoins, algo-stablecoins and depegging.
• Terra’s public infrastructure is getting quite clogged.
• Ex-Terra colleagues note that Do Kwon was behind earlier failed stablecoinStablecoins maybe privately issued cryptocurrency or algorit… More before UST.
• CoinDesk reports that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered the BitMEX’s founders – Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed to each pay a $10M penalty.
• Later this month, Gucci will start to accept crypto in five stores as a step towards blending its Web3 and physical communities.
• Bitcoin Magazine dives into BIP-119, CTV and its surrounding activation debate.
• Mexican bitcoin exchange, Tauros, has integrated Lightning network capabilities!
• Kraken announces support for THORChain’s RUNE starting May 6, 2022 at approximately 14:30 UTC.
• Instagram announces in partnership with Polygon that they will be supporting NFTs.
• RCD Espanyol will begin accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for match tickets, merchandise and food and beverages next season.
• Visa’s global head of fintech and crypto, Terry Angelos, is leaving to take over as CEO of mobile trading tech firm, DriveWealth.
• Bitcoin security and custodial firm, Casa, announces a new API and raises $21M Series A funding round.
• KuCoin has raised $150M in a pre-Series B funding round at a valuation of $10B.
• Dapper Labs’ Flow, is making a $725M push to attract more projects in Web3 and NFTs with help from a16z.

This Week’s Cup of Coffee:

This week, we are heading to Santa Barbara, CA for a cup of Giro D’ Italia from Handlebar Coffee Roasters! This blend of beans from Guatemala, Brazil, and Ethiopia brings out super smooth and sweet notes of spices, hints of chocolate and just the right balance to jump start your morning. Sip up and enjoy!!