EthHub Weekly #133
EthHub Weekly #133
Optimism launches testnet with Synthetix, Gitcoin introduces grant collections, Dune Analytics raises $2M seed round and much more!
Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)
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💸 Giving Season
This week is your last chance to have your donations to all of the amazing projects on Gitcoin Grants matched by the quadratic funding gods. If you haven’t donated yet, I strongly advise you do to check out the projects on Gitcoin and donate to a few of them as even small donations like $1 or $5 can be multiplied considerably by the matching logic. If you just want to make it even easier, check out this list for my top 40 picks.
I was also recently on the Blockchain.com podcast to discuss all things Ethereum and DeFi - you can listen here.
Have a great week everyone!
- Anthony
News of the Week
😬 Over $150M Drained in KuCoin Crypto Exchange Hack
Over $150 million of an Asian cryptocurrency exchange’s funds have been compromised in a security breach.
The Singapore-headquartered digital asset exchange KuCoin said in a statement that it detected large withdrawals of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) tokens to an unknown wallet beginning at 19:05 UTC time on Friday.
In a live stream on 4:30 UTC time Saturday, KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu said that one or more hackers obtained the private keys to the exchange’s hot wallets. KuCoin transferred what was left in them to new hot wallets, abandoned the old ones and froze customer deposits and withdrawals, Lyu said.
KuCoin’s cold wallets were unaffected, Lyu claimed. Cold cryptocurrency wallets are not connected to the Internet and are considered more secure than hot cryptocurrency wallets.
⚖️ SEC, OCC Issue First Regulatory Clarifications for Stablecoins
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has published fresh guidance, officially clarifying national banks can provide services to stablecoin issuers in the U.S.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published stablecoin guidance Monday, providing the first detailed national guidance on how cryptocurrencies backed by fiat currencies should be treated under law. Prior to Monday’s notices, there was no federal clarity around stablecoins.
Stablecoin issuers have been using U.S. banks for years, but in an unclear regulatory environment. Now, the OCC wants federally regulated banks to feel comfortable providing services to stablecoin issuers, it said in a press release. An accompanying interpretative letter, signed by Senior Deputy Comptroller Jonathan Gould, explained that while banks should conduct due diligence and ensure they assess the risks of banking any stablecoin issuers, stablecoins are becoming increasingly popular.
Project Updates
The State of 1559
Tim Beiko provides an update on Ethereum’s most anticipated upgrade (EIP-1559) with everything you need to know.
Eth 2.0 Dev Update #56 — “Getting ready for Spadina”
A primer on the upcoming Spadina testnet release and the usual round of updates from PryLabs.
Eth2 Quick Update No. 17
Spadina launchpad live, audit updates, a look at EIP-2982 and more in this eth2 quick update from Danny Ryan.
Optimism Launches Testnet
Optimism released their Optimistic Rollup testnet last week with Synthetix has a launch partner. They also detailed the testnet rollout plans and the path towards mainnet.
MakerDAO Won’t Compensate Black Thursday Vault Losses
MakerDAO has concluded a governance poll in which Maker token holders decided not to compensate Vault owners who suffered losses by liquidations during the March 12-13 market crash.
tBTC is Now Live
tBTC, which lets Bitcoin holders access Ethereum DeFi apps, is live and ready to be used now on tbtc.network.
Rocket Pool 2.5 — Rolling Beta
The Rocket Pool 2.5 Medalla Rolling Beta will be starting in a few weeks, on the 6th October, 2020 00:00 UTC.
Introducing Yield Farming Strategies on TokenSets
Set introduced 2 new yield farming strategies to TokenSets this week - the ETH USD Yield Farm and the ETH WBTC Yield Farm - both of which are currently farming the UNI token by providing liquidity to Uniswap.
Aave Governance Now on Mainnet
Aave’s community now has a direct say in the governance of the platform with the very first Aave Improvement Proposal (AIP) looking to approve the token migration from LEND to AAVE.
mStable Governance: Staking V1 Launch
mStable Staking v1 was released last week. Staking V1 is all about bootstrapping their governance community with Meta stakers being able to propose and vote on several aspects of the mStable protocol.
Liquity Protocol Raises $2.4M
The round was led by Polychain Capital, with follow on investments from a_capital, Lemniscap, 1kx, DFINITY Ecosystem Fund, Robot Ventures (Robert Leshner), and Alex Pack.
Gitcoin Introduces Grant Collections
You can create a new collection with the "save as collection" button during grant checkout. This allows others do donate to projects using your collection.
Mempool Explorer Introduced
The Mempool Explorer from Blocknative is a net-new way to build real-time streams of in-flight transaction data. Builders & traders can now easily work with live mempool data.
Synthetix Updates
The Synthetix protocol has been updated with the Formalhaut release, Synthetix is heading to layer 2 with Optimistic Ethereum, and a new Synthetix stats website is now live.
The Graph GRT Token Economics Detailed
In this update, The Graph details the different roles that people will take in the protocol and how the GRT token plays into that.
Maskbook Updated
This new version of Maskbook adds a trading widget that is powered by Uniswap and CoinMarketCap. If you have the extension install, you can now simply hover over a cashtag (e.g $ETH) and instantly view its token price or swap it on Uniswap.
Rails Introduced
Rails is a layer-two payment solution that can transfer ETH and ERC20 tokens between users gas-free.
Dune Analytics Raises $2M Seed Round
The round was led by Dragonfly Capital with participation from Multicoin Capital, Hashed, Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group and more.
BarnBridge Introduces Liquidity Mining
The liquidity mining program will be a 2-phased approach and will begin once security audits are completed.
syUSD Announced
syUSD is an entirely permissionless and constantly balance increasing stablecoin. It is an ERC20 token that lets you wrap yUSD into a stable currency.
Status Desktop is Back
Private messaging with Status is now available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, with seamless syncing to your mobile device.
Liquality Wallet Now on Mainnet
You can use the Liquality wallet to swap from BTC to DeFi.
Leverj Launches Futures Trading
You can now trade leveraged perpetual swaps on the Leverj exchange.
Interesting Tweets
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
Escaping the Dark Forest (highly recommended read)
Videos
Podcasts
Hugh Karp of Nexus Mutual AMA - Bankless
Camila Russo: Laying Bare the Story of Ethereum - Epicenter
Why NFTs Are Attracting Everyday People to Crypto - Unconfirmed
How Matthew Leising Confronted His Suspects in the DAO Attacks - Unchained
Misc
Meme of the Week
Looking for Work?
Top jobs listed on Cryptocurrency Jobs this week:
UX/UI Designer - Maple
Jr. Software Engineer - Opyn
Devops Engineer - StarkWare
Product Designer - Cozy Finance
+1000’s more on the Cryptocurrency Jobs website!
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