EthHub Weekly #106
Ethereum.org dev update #2, USDC added to Maker, Gnosis Safe adds new features, DeBank now live and much more!
Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)
😷 Another wild week
There’s not much crypto going on these days - most of the discussions are, naturally, focused around the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The last week was brutal - cases in the U.S started spiking with over 35,000 confirmed cases and over 450 deaths so far. Italy also saw days of 600-700 deaths and other European countries seem to be following that trend. Other countries are tightening their borders (here in Australia we banned all non-citizens/non-permanent residents from entering the country) and lockdowns are being put in place for many countries. The situation right now seems dire for the world, but I do believe we’ll get through it stronger on the other side which unfortunately could take 6-12 months or more. In the meantime, stay safe everyone!
Onto a happier note - last week I sat down with YouTuber ‘The Crypto Lark’ to discuss Ethereum (in particular, the latest DeFi drama) as well as TokenSets. Check that out here. Eric also published a new piece titled ‘Breaking Down Ethereum Wallets Options’ - have a read of that here.
Developers, developers, developers - they are the beating heart of Ethereum and Compound has put together some great resources for them. You can check out their developer guides here and also check out a few guides from Adam Bavosa here.
Oh and Gitcoin Grants Matching Round 5 goes live today - don’t forget to donate to your favorite projects!
Have a great week everyone!
-Â Anthony
News of the Week
🤢 Former Bakkt CEO Sold Millions in Stock Before Coronavirus Crash
Senator Kelly Loeffler (Republican-Georgia) sold off millions in stock ahead of the recent coronavirus-induced market crash, according to financial disclosures.
The disclosures reveal that Loeffler, former CEO of Bakkt, reported the first sale of stock on January 24, the same day her committee, the Senate Health Committee, hosted a private meeting on coronavirus. The Daily Beast first reported the news.
The first sale transaction was of stock Resideo Technologies, worth between $50,001 and $100,000. The company’s stock price has declined by more than half since then.
Other sale transactions include stocks of Comcast Corporation, Keysight Technologies, Ross Stores and other companies - worth between $1,275,000 and $3,100,000.
Interestingly, Loeffler initially reported many of these sale transactions in the name of her husband - Jeffrey Sprecher, founder, chairman, and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange and chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. Last week, i.e. on March 12, she amended the report to note that most of them were jointly owned.
😔 Crypto Hedge Fund Adaptive Capital Shutting Down
In an investor letter reviewed by crypto news outlet The Block, Adaptive said that it plans to return remaining capital to its Limited Partners following a steep drop in bitcoin's price during the March 12-13 trading session.
"Adaptive has made the decision to close operations and return the remaining funds to investors," the firm wrote. "We are convinced that the risks of continuing operations in such an unstable environment outweigh the potential benefits."
Adaptive blamed "infrastructural insufficiencies" for its inability to respond properly to the sell-off. BitMEX, which isn't named in the letter, went out of service for about 45-minutes during the price-plunge. BitMEX said it had a "hardware issue" with its cloud service provider, which caused requests to be delayed between 02:16 and 02:40 UTC. Normal service resumed at 03:00 UTC, it added. Sources told The Block that Adaptive maintained accounts on BitMEX, which were liquidated.
"A number of respectable exchanges, platforms, and tools that we use daily have halted their operations during the selloff significantly hindering our ability to act accordingly," Adaptive said in the letter.
Project Updates
Ethereum.org Development Update #2
Latest updates from the Ethereum.org team including a style guide and design upgrade, simplification of Studio, and more.
What’s New in Eth2 - 20 Mar 2020
Eth2 progress continues and Ben has collated all the relevant info from the last week including his thoughts on Vitalik’s 5-10 year unofficial Ethereum roadmap, research updates, and much more.
Eth 2.0 Dev Update #46 - PryLabs
Slasher now running in prod and catching slashable actions, fuzz testing running on Prysm’s core functions, a revamp of the beacon state management, improved sync times and much more in this update.
eth2 quick update no. 9
New beacon chain spec release, new paper available for public review, updates on statelessness and much more in this eth2 update from Danny Ryan.
USDC Added to Maker
USDC is the third collateral type that users can now use to open Vaults on the MakerDAO platform.
Introducing ETH Dashboard
ETH Dashboard is a simple, customizable dashboard to display whichever Ethereum data is important to you.
Dharma Adds P2P Payments
You can now use the Dharma app to send and receive USD from anywhere in the world - all while earning interest.
Gnosis Safe Adds New Features
Native hardware wallet integration (Ledger, Trezor) and NFT (ERC-721) support is now live in the Gnosis Safe wallet.
ENS Adds Custom Text Records
The ENS Manager now supports custom text records which means people can use ENS to store a wide range of information without the ENS team having to add a new record type for each new use case.
DMM Launched
DMM assets are backed by real-world, income-generating assets and you can easily gain exposure by simply depositing DAI or USDC.
Dex.ag Updates
Limit orders added for various trading pairs and dex.ag have integrated Curve Finance with their X Blaster for better prices on stablecoin swaps.
DeBank Now Live
DeBank is an interface into the world of DeFi (similar to Zerion) that supports apps such as TokenSets, Uniswap, PoolTogether and others.
Microsponsors Now Live
You can now mint and auction your time as NFTs using the Microsponsors marketplace (powered by 0x).
Community Member Spotlight
This week we’re highlighting the great work of Protolambda!
Protolambda is a core Ethereum community member - he spends most of his time as a researcher for the Ethereum Foundation (particularly around eth2). You can read his research on Ethresear.ch here.
You can view some of his work on his personal website.
Keep up the great work Protolambda!
Interesting Tweets
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
What ETH2 has learned from ETH1 (highly recommended read)
Ethereum Protocol Development Governance and Network Upgrade Coordination
Multi-Collateral DAI: first 120 days of liquidity provisioning on Uniswap
Meltdown In the Capital Markets Signals the Birth of the DeFi Era
Podcasts
Authereum: Reshaping the Future of Ethereum Wallets - Into the Ether
No BTC, No Ethereum Killers: Activist Investing in Crypto with Vance Spencer - Blockcrunch
Chris Burniske: A Blank Slate of State - Unchained
Economic Bandwidth - Bankless
Videos
Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, and the Future of Money | AI Podcast #80 with Lex Fridman
Misc
Meme of the Week
Looking for Work?
Top jobs listed on Cryptocurrency Jobs this week:
Blockchain Tax Manager - Deloitte
React Developer (Blockchain) - JP Morgan
Head of Institutional Marketing - ConsenSys
Business Operations Associate - Pantera Capital
+100’s more on the Cryptocurrency Jobs website!
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