EthHub Weekly #141
Umbrella Protocol introduced, Dex.ag rebrands to Slingshot, Truffle joins ConsenSys, Deriswap introduced and much more!
Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)
đ A Wild Week
Well, that was a crazy week, wasnât it? ETH blasted through $500 which is a price it hasnât seen since July 2018! Obviously, this got many Ethereans very excited and it certainly feels like the bull market is back on. I gave some more thoughts about ETH being at $500 on Bankless - watch that here. Eric was also on Bankless to give his thoughts on Ethereum community, culture, staking and more - watch that here.
Eric also put out a call to add a âmax genesis dateâ for the eth2 phase 0 launch - check that out here - and I broke down his proposal in a piece here.
Lastly, Iâm excited to announce that Iâve taken The Daily Gwei to the next level by launching a YouTube channel and Discord community. You can read the full details about all of that here.
Oh and donât miss the latest eth2 AMA here.
Have a great week everyone!
-Â Anthony
News of the Week
âď¸Â Binance Says it Sued Forbes for Defamation
Crypto exchange Binance filed a defamation lawsuit last week against Forbes Media and two of its writers in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey.
The lawsuit is in response to a recent Forbes story, penned by the writers Michael del Castillo and Jason Brett, which claimed that Binance âconceived of an elaborate corporate structure designed to intentionally deceive regulators,â among other allegations.
In the suit, Binance, âorganized under the laws of the Cayman Islands,â denied all claims. It said the contents of the story are "false, misleading and highly defamatory."
"Binance does not violate, and fully complies with, all applicable laws, rules and regulations in its operations," the lawsuit reads. "Binance does not seek to evade or 'side-step' any regulatory entities in any jurisdictions."
Binance alleges "millions of dollars" in losses due to the Forbes story. As a result, the exchange is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be proven at trial.
đ¤Â SEC Chairman Jay Clayton Stepping Down
Jay Clayton, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is stepping down from the agency at the end of this year.
Clayton's departure comes months ahead of his scheduled release in June 2021. Clayton was sworn in as the SEC chairman in May 2017 after being appointed by President Donald Trump. Now that Joe Biden has been elected as the new U.S. President, it remains to be seen who replaces Clayton.
The SEC also mentioned Clayton's enforcement efforts in the crypto space. In 2017, the initial coin offering (ICO) boom attracted the SEC's attention due to "substantial fraudulent activity" involved in these schemes. Under Clayton's chairmanship, the SEC said it acted "quickly and decisively to combat fraud and pave the way for innovation."
In the crypto community, Clayton is also known for his cautious stance on bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Project Updates
ESP Grantee Roundup: November 2020
This update provides updates on the projects that the ESP has funded and the recent milestones they have reached.
Introducing the Umbrella Protocol by Yam
The Umbrella Protocol features perpetual ERC20 streaming coverage, immutable coverage pools, and permissionless factory-based pool creation that allows for customization and iteration over time.
Truffle Joins ConsenSys
ConsenSys has acquired the team and technology of Truffle. Among the most widely used blockchain developer tools, the Truffle Suite is a development environment, testing framework, and asset pipeline all rolled into one. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Vector Now on Testnet
Vector is the next iteration of Connext which focuses hard on fixing on/offboarding from L2 chains. Itâs now on testnet.
Introducing Deriswap
Deriswap combines Swaps, Options, and Loans into a capital efficient single contract, allowing interaction between the two assets that make up the pair.
Rotki v1.9.0 Released
This version includes a net worth graph on the dashboard, info on liabilities, support for Uniswap and support for eth2 staking.
Slingshot Announced
Slingshot is the new brand for Dex.ag and aims to help users find the best price for any given token trade on Ethereum. They announced that they raised $3.1 million from Framework Ventures, with additional participation from many others, including Electric Capital, IDEO CoLab, Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, Digital Currency Group, Robot Ventures and more.
SmartDeFi Announced
SmartDeFi is an easy to use, non-custodial robo-investment app which fulfills the needs of traditional investors who want to make their first DeFi investments, but donât understand the risks involved or how to take the first steps.
Cover Protocol Launched
Cover Protocol is officially launched. You can mint, redeem, and purchase coverages for the supported protocols on the app.
Clr.fund Round 0 Review
Clr.fundâs inaugural round 0 worked as expected, no news is good news. This small round represented a huge milestone for quadratic funding.
AirSwap Phase 2 Announced
In January, AirSwap enters its second phase with new governance, new tokenomics, a new treasury plan, refreshed website, core principles, and launch goals for the new year.
DeFi Saver Releases Ethereum Gas Price Extension
The extension shows you current gas prices at all times and provides a 7-day averages chart to figure out a good time for management of your positions
Idle Finance Raises $1.2 Million
The round was led by gumi Cryptos Capital, with participation from Quantstamp, BlockRock Capital and Long Hash, among others. With fresh capital at hand, Idle plans to scale its yield optimization protocol with new features.
88mph Launched
88mph lets you send your crypto assets at a fixed interest rate with infinite liquidity.
The Multichain Comes to RenVM
With this release, a new range of new assets and chains enter the world of interoperability including BTC, DOGE and FIL.
Nascent Introduced
Nascent is are a multi-strategy investment firm that pursues compelling opportunities in crypto, DeFi, and the open economies they enable.
Buidl Guidl Launched
Buidl Guidl is a forkable quadratic funding system for on-chain bounties.
DeFi Database Launched
DeFi Database is a community resource for tracking the DeFi projects ecosystem.
Interesting Tweets
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
Running an ETH Validator for the Barely Motivated (recommended read)
Videos
Podcasts
Grayscale: $10B Bridge to Crypto | Michael Sonnenshein - Bankless
Ocean Protocol: The Platform Making Waves in the Data Industry - Epicenter
Roxana Danila, CTO of Nexus Mutual on Building the World's First Insurance Protocol for DeFi - Cryptotesters
Misc
Meme of the Week
Looking for Work?
Top jobs listed on Cryptocurrency Jobs this week:
Blockchain Engineer, Integrations - Chainlink
Client and Project Manager - Deep Work
DevOps Engineer - ChainSafe Systems
+1000âs more on the Cryptocurrency Jobs website!
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