EthHub Weekly #105
MKR debt auction announced, Synthetix roadmap update, Uniswap data on CoinMarketCap and much more!
Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)
đ So that happenedâŠ
What an insane week - where to even begin? The crypto markets got absolutely destroyed (we saw double digit ETH again!) and Ethereum had gas prices of 150 gwei+ (some of its highest ever). This resulted in lots of things falling over - the biggest being MakerDAO. The high gas fees led to some CDPs/Vaults being completely liquidated - that is, no ETH collateral was leftover at all. This was due to âkeepersâ - those who usually bid for the underlying ETH collateral during a liquidation - not being able to get their bids in. Only 1 keeper participated and bid in these liquidations - and they got all the ETH for $0. Yes - thatâs right - $0!
This all means that there is now a shortfall of DAI in the Maker system which requires a âbackstop auctionâ to recollateralize. This involves printing and selling new MKR in an open auction (which is happening Thursday). If youâd like to get involved, be sure to join the MakerDAO Backstop Syndicate by heading here.
On top of all of this, we had more major global news about COVID-19 and it seems this virus is really taking off now. I wontât give any hot takes on coronavirus here, but be sure to tune in to this weeks weekly recap podcast to hear Eric and Iâs thoughts on everything. Also, for those who attended EthCC or ETHLondon, be sure to monitor this form as numerous attendees to that conference have since tested positive for COVID-19.
Also, due to COVID-19, the Ethereal New York Summit that I mentioned in the newsletter a couple of weeks ago has been cancelled and replaced with an all virtual summit. Check that out here.
One last thing - off of the back of the recent ProgPoW debates - Eric wrote a blog post giving an overview of the Ethereum DAG Size growth and the impact itâll have on the networks hash rate. Read it here.
Have a great week everyone!
-Â Anthony
News of the Week
đ€Â Security Tokens Draw Interest from Institutions
Amid growing competition between providers, institutions in the traditional finance space are looking at blockchain as another way to offer value to their clients â but it might not be their top priority, according to experts who appeared at the MIT Bitcoin Expo this weekend.
"If you remove yourself from the crypto space, there are tons of events happening in finance," said Ada Kokoshi, vice president and digital asset lead at State Street. "For example, the stock market last week just didnât behave well. And with things like 401(k) plans, exchange-trusted funds (ETF), and mutual funds, there are tons of competition between providers which are driving the fees down."
As a result, she said, even though financial service providers have the desire to understand emerging technologies like blockchain, their top priority remains to provide value to their customers.
"Crypto might be one way to do that,â she said. "But that involves redesigning their entire value chain, and thereâs still a lot of work to be done."
đżđŒÂ Zimbabwe Set to Regulate Crypto
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country's central bank, is set to regulate cryptocurrencies after banning local banks from processing crypto payments in 2018.
The central bank has already started drafting a policy framework to guide operations of crypto firms, local newspaper The Chronicle reported on Monday. The RBZ has apparently admitted that the crypto trend is a reality.
"We have already started to come up with a fintech framework because in regulation everything should be well structured. The framework, which is a regulatory sandbox, will be assessing the cryptocurrency companies as to how they are going to operate," said Josephat Mutepfa, deputy director of financial markets and national payment systems at the RBZ, while speaking during a Sound Prosperity Economic Forum in the Bulawayo city on Friday.
"Once you enter the sandbox you either exist as a bonafide product to enter the market or you are guided to say that you need to partner a bank, a mobile money platform or your product needs to be licensed like a microfinance company," Mutepfa added.
Project Updates
MKR Debt Auction Announced
Due to recent market activity and the resulting accumulation of protocol debt in the MakerDAO system, an MKR token auction will occur on the Maker Protocol, March 19th, tentatively starting at 6:25am ET (March 19, 10:25 am UTC) to recapitalize the system.
Gnosis Launches Political Prediction Markets
Gnosisâ prediction markets platform, Sight, is launching political prediction markets. You can apply now to take part in Sight beta at bit.ly/join-sight, and check out the live markets at sight.pm/#markets.
MetaMask Monthly: February 2020
Monthly update from the MetaMask team going over everything that happened during February.
TokenSets Launches New Login Flow
You can now login to TokenSets using email (via Fortmatic), Ledger, and other web3-enabled wallets such as Status, Alpha Wallet and DappPocket.
Paradigm Labs Shutting Down
After almost two years of active research and development, the team has come to the decision that without significant product-market fit and limited resources to pursue emergent opportunities, Paradigm Labs needs to be shutdown.
Uniswap Data Now on CoinMarketCap
You can now view market data for many of the Uniswap liquidity pools/trading pairs using CoinMarketCap.
Synthetix Product Roadmap Update
The Synthetix team have put together an update that goes over everything coming to the protocol in 2020 - including major upgrades, improvements and more.
Balancer Contracts are Open-Sourced
After several months of heavy development, the Balancer core contracts are now open-sourced here.
Synthetix Product Roadmap Update
The Synthetix team have put together an update that goes over everything coming to the protocol in 2020 - including major upgrades, improvements and more.
Baseline Protocol Announced
ConsenSys and EY announced their working project, Baseline Protocol, joined by 12 other firms and organizations including Microsoft, AMD, ChainLink, and MakerDAO. The new protocol allows enterprise synchronize data with collaborators via the Ethereum blockchain without having to publicize all business records
Anthonyâs note: I missed this one in last weeks newsletter.
Community Member Spotlight
This week weâre highlighting the great work of DeFi Dad!
DeFi Dad (formerly known as Crypto Dad) aka Travis is an incredibly active Ethereum community member. He works at ConsenSys and is responsible for planning the various Ethereal conferences around the world. Heâs also the host of the Ethereal Podcast.
DeFi Dad constantly puts out great DeFi-based Tutorials on Twitter that will keep you up to date on all thatâs happening - I highly recommend following him.
Keep up the great work DeFi Dad!
Interesting Tweets
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
Ethereum is an Emergent Structure (recommended read)
On the Brink⊠(recommended read)
Black Thursday for MakerDAO: $8.32 million was liquidated for 0 DAI
Podcasts
Paul Brody: Bringing Ethereum to Enterprise - Into the Ether
Reflections on Aragon Court's Launch with Jorge Izquierdo - Wizard of Dapps
Videos
Misc
Meme of the Week
Looking for Work?
Top jobs listed on Cryptocurrency Jobs this week:
Marketing Lead - Gitcoin
Android Engineer - Gnosis
Solidity Engineer - Stability Labs
HR & Operations Coordinator - Status
+100âs more on the Cryptocurrency Jobs website!
Support EthHub:
Donations (ethhub.eth)