EthHub Weekly #118
Onyx eth2 testnet announced and launched, Starkware introduces Volition, Coinbase explores adding additional assets and much more!
Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)
đââď¸Â A Busy Week in Ethereum
The price action over the last week has been quite mellowed but that doesnât mean the Ethereum ecosystem has slowed down at all. As youâll see throughout the rest of the newsletter, it was a very busy week in Ethereum. Be sure to check out the âEcosystem Bitsâ section for a lot of new reading material!
The two biggest events from the week were the mystery of the really large fees (which I wrote about here) and the launch of the next PryLabs eth2 phase 0 testnet - Onyx! This testnet is the successor to Topaz which ran smoothly for a few weeks and gave the team lots of juicy data/insights to work off of. For a full breakdown of the eth2 testnet action over the last few weeks, you can read the piece I wrote here.
Also, Gitcoin Grants Round 6 is now live so you can donate to all of your favorite projects and itâll get match (sometimes up to 100x!). If youâd like to support EthHub, our grant can be found here.
Have a great week everyone!
-Â Anthony
News of the Week
đŹÂ Quadriga Was a Ponzi Scheme, Ontario Securities Regulator Says
QuadrigaCX operated like a Ponzi scheme. Thatâs the key finding of an Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) report made public Thursday.
OSC, one of Canadaâs provincial securities regulators, said the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange, which went into bankruptcy a few months after founder and CEO Gerald Cotten was reported to have died in India, âwas an old-fashioned fraud wrapped in modern technology.â
The report, dated April 2020 but released publicly on Thursday, took aim at Cottenâs practices, including allegations that he traded against his own customers, set up fake accounts on other exchanges to trade using his customersâ funds and failed to maintain records. These allegations have been made in the past by Ernst and Young (EY), a court-appointed auditor tasked with recovering customer funds following the exchangeâs February 2019 collapse.
The company has recovered about C$46 million to date.
âď¸Â Indiaâs Rumored Crypto Ban May Be Overblown, Say Industry Pros
Rumors that India might be considering a new ban on crypto may be premature, exchange founders and startup CEOs working in the sector believe.
Indian news site The Economic Times created a stir Friday by suggesting that lawmakers in India, where the Supreme Court only overturned a punitive banking ban from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) four months ago, were planning on slapping a new ban on crypto companies.
The story, titled âWith a law, India plans lasting ban on crypto,â cited one unnamed âsenior government officialâ who told The Economic Times that, âA note [presumably on crypto] has been moved (by the finance ministry) for inter-ministerial consultations.â
The article doesnât provide any information on what the note could be but says that it was spurred on by the Supreme Court ruling, which allowed crypto exchanges to finally access banking services after nearly two years stuck in the wilderness.
They then claim that it could well lean on a previous government draft law, from July 2019, which proposed that all forms of cryptocurrency be banned, with anyone caught holding them facing up a fine and up to 10 years imprisonment.
Project Updates
Introducing the Onyx Testnet
PryLabsâ next eth2 phase 0 testnet, Onyx, was announced this week. This testnet replaces the old Topaz one and will run the new v0.12.1 spec. It went live a couple of days ago. Thereâs also a FAQ doc about the testnet here.
Whatâs New in Eth2 - 12 June 2020
All your regular eth2 updates packed into Benâs weekly newsletter as per usual - this one has a great section on the current testnet status.
Lighthouse Update #26
Sigma Prime provides technical updates on the work theyâve been doing on their eth2 client - Lighthouse.
StarkWare Introduces Volition
Volition is a hybrid on-chain/off-chain data solution that allows users to dynamically pick where they want their data stored. StarkEx will support Volition soon.
mStable Offers Cheap Stablecoin Swaps
To celebrate mStableâs beta launch, the team are offering low fee stablecoin trading on their zero slippage swap product! Fees have been temporarily reduced from 30 basis points to 2.5 basis points.
Blockscan Launched
Blockchain is a earch engine for a decentralized web. Explore websites on .eth, .crypto and .zil domains, with more to come.
Kyber Ecosystem Report #15
This update is the biggest yet for Kyber Network as they have a laundry list of new things to tell us about from the month of May.
ConsenSys Launches Codefi Compliance
Codefi Compliance is a new offering in the Codefi product suite. Itâs an automated and agile regulatory and compliance platform for digital assets.
Coinbase Explores Adding More Assets
Coinbase announced that they are exploring the addition of a host of new assets to the platform. Among these are popular ERC20/DeFi tokens LEND, NMR and SNX.
New Maker Auction System Proposal Announced
This new system would use Dutch auctions which supports flash loans and instant arbitrage to tap into DEX and broader DeFi liquidity.
Bitfly Revamps Beacon Chain Explorer
New features include the ability to find eth1 deposits, check eth2 deposits and link them together so that you can find all of your validators!
Upvest Raises $1mil
Upvest is a startup building a prediction tool for Ethereum gas fees. This week, they raised $1mil from the European Regional Development Fund, through the ProFIT program of Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB).
Dove Mountain Data Launched
Regan Bozman of CoinList has launched Dove Mountain Data - the most comprehensive database of crypto investors and their investments.
Curve Finance Integrates RenVM
You can now use Curve to earn yield with your BTC, on-ramp to WBTC from BTC and swap renBTC with WBTC using the liquidity pool.
SafeKeep Public Beta Launched
SafeKeepâs app goes beyond account balances and positions to a full-blown record-keeping & PnL solution. List of initial features here.
Matic Updates
This week, Matic published an update on when staking will launch, welcomed a collectible card game to the platform and teamed up with Koinfox to launch TrustScore.
Mapleâs New Groove
Maple Loans deployed a brand new front end design to their website this week.
Introducing Alchemy Notify
Alchemy Notify is a new product for the Alchemy blockchain developer platform that solves one of the most critical UX problems in blockchain: real-time notifications for transactions and events.
Community Member Spotlight
This week weâre highlighting the great work of Philippe Castonguay!
Philippe is currently working at Horizon Games in Ethereum research and development where heâs building an Ethereum-based TCG called Skyweaver. Philippe is also quite active on Github where he works on various projects including the ERC-115 token standard, NiftySwap and more.
Keep up the great work Philippe!
Interesting Tweets
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
Analysis of EIP-1559 (highly recommended read)
How Dai-enabled Debit Cards Are Driving Maker Protocol Adoption
Understanding Phase 0, The Current Stage of ETH 2.0 Development
Evaluating Ethereum L2 Scaling Solutions: A Comparison Framework
7 DeFi Projects That Will Generate A Lot of Attention in 2020
Videos
Podcasts
Loopring: Scaling Trading and Payments on Ethereum with zkRollups - Into the Ether
What's an Etherean? with Nic Carter - Bankless
Bullish Bitcoin and Ethereum with Kyle Davies - POV Crypto
Misc
Meme of the Week
Looking for Work?
Top jobs listed on Cryptocurrency Jobs this week:
Junior QA Engineer - Immutable
Assistant to the CEO - OmiseGo
Site Reliability Engineer - Axiom Zen
Community Operations Specialist - ETHPlanet
+100âs more on the Cryptocurrency Jobs website!
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