EthHub Weekly #159
Visa using Ethereum, Shutter Network announced, Uniswap v3 detailed, new AllCoreDev updates and more!
Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)
😍 Ethereum the Settlement Layer
Well well well, Visa has made waves in the Ethereum ecosystem by announcing that they’re going to be settling USDC transactions on the Ethereum mainnet through a partner (crypto.com). I wrote more about this here but essentially I can’t really think of any reason why this isn’t incredibly bullish for the entire Ethereum ecosystem - Visa is signalling to all of the financial system that Ethereum is a legitimate platform to settle value on - we ain’t seen nothing yet.
Have a great week everyone!
- Anthony
News of the Week
🤯 Visa Now Settles Payments in USDC to Ethereum
Visa announced Monday that it now settles payments in the USDC stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain.
The development means Visa has become the first major payments network to use stablecoin as a settlement currency. Until now, Visa settled payments in fiat currencies only.
For its new USDC settlement capability, Visa is initially working with Crypto.com, letting the crypto firm manage its card business now entirely in digital assets.
Previously, Visa's standard settlement process required Crypto.com to settle in a fiat currency, which added cost and complexity for the firm. Now Crypto.com won't have to go through conversations and settle with Visa directly in USDC.
"The announcement today marks a major milestone in our ability to address the needs of fintechs managing their business in a stablecoin or cryptocurrency," said Visa's chief product officer Jack Forestell. "And it's really an extension of what we do every day, securely facilitating payments in all different currencies all across the world."
🤔 Asset Management Giant Fidelity Files for a Bitcoin ETF
A new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicates that asset management giant Fidelity is seeking to create a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF is the latest entrant in a growing race to launch a bitcoin exchange-traded product in the United States. According to the filing, a firm called FD Funds Management LLC is the sponsor of the fund, with Fidelity Service Company, Inc. serving as administrator. Per the document, FD Funds Management LLC shares the same Boston, MA address as Fidelity's headquarters.
Fidelity Digital Assets, the asset manager's crypto-focused arm, will serve as custodian.
The ETF, if approved, will also employ Fidelity's in-house bitcoin price index, per the filing.
Project Updates
AllCoreDevs Update 001
The first update in a new series from Tim Beiko going over the latest news from the AllCoreDevs including updates on future network upgrades Berlin, London and Shanghai.
Finalized No. 24
Altair pre-release out, open call for a security RFP and coverage of the merge progress by Danny Ryan in this weeks update.
What’s New in Eth2 - 28 March 2021
A healthy update from Ben this week with an editorial going over eth2’s journey, updates on the Beacon Chain, the merge and more.
ESP Allocation Update: Q4 2020
The Ethereum Support Program (ESP) has paid out over $4 million worth of grants to a number of projects working to improve Ethereum.
Shutter Network Introduced
Shutter Network is an open-source project that aims to prevent frontrunning and malicious MEV on Ethereum by using a threshold cryptography-based distributed key generation (DKG) protocol.
zkSync 2.0 Roadmap Update
In this update, the zkSync team details their roadmap over the coming months including their plans for their new Zinc virtual machine!
HopProtocol Detailed
Hop allows users to quickly and easily transfer tokens directly between layer-2s, sidechains, and layer-1 Ethereum.
Optimism Public Mainnet Delayed
Last week, the Optimism team announced that the public mainnet of their layer 2 solution will unfortunately be delayed until July 2020. Synthetix also published an update on their Optimism rollout here.
Arbitrum Updates
Arbitrum launched their mainnet release candidate onto the Kovan testnet this week and their open and permissionless mainnet deployment is now closer than ever.
Hermez Network Live on Mainnet
You can now create accounts, deposit funds, send transactions and withdraw funds using Hermez’s layer 2 zkRollup.
ALPHA Tokenomics Announced
In this post, Alpha Finance founder Tascha breaks down ALPHA’s tokenomics and how they work.
Uniswap v3 Detailed
The much-hyped Uniswap v3 was detailed this week and its headline features include concentrated liquidity, range orders, flexible fees and more.
NATTO Introduced
NATTO is a Sushi NFT exchange that has been gas-optimized. It supports NFT artists and collectors, in addition to providing Uniswap V3 NFT LP token holders a seamless selling solution.
FWB Season Two
Season Two will focus on strengthening existing relationships while accelerating new ones — protecting the intrinsic value to amplify the extrinsic influence. Season Two is about building the infrastructure needed to keep the party going.
EPNS Closes Extended Seed Round
EPNS has raised $660,000 from investors including True Ventures, IOSG, Sandeep Nailwal and more. EPNS has also teamed up with Superfluid.
Introducing DVF
DVF is a new governance token for DeversiFi which is a DeFi hub on Ethereum layer-2. The teams mission is to make DeFi easy: swap, invest and send tokens on Ethereum layer-2, without paying gas.
Liquity Launch Details
Liquity will launch in April 5th 2021 with LQTY rewards available at launch. The app will be fully functional at launch minus redemptions.
MEME Creates Nifty’s
MEME founders have teamed up with other blockchain and media pros to create Nifty’s, a new NFT platform with social galleries and powerful publishing tools.
Introducing useDApp
useDApp is a developer toolkit that standardizes common routines, abstracts a lot of complexity and encourages using good practices that were developed by the community.
Horizon Finance Beta Launch
v1 Horizon Finance markets are now officially live in beta. The first live markets are for yUSD and xSUSHI.
Charm Raises Seed Round
The raise came from DeFiance Capital, Divergence Ventures and Delphi Ventures.
Staked Launches ETH Trust
The Staked ETH Trust gives investors both exposure to ETH and staking rewards.
Handle Finance Closes Seed Round
The raise was participated in by Distributed Global, Lemniscap, Apollo Capital and others.
Interesting Tweets
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
Videos
Podcasts
Ultra Sound Money | Justin Drake - Bankless
Liquity: The Decentralized Borrowing Protocol - Epicenter
Kevin Owocki on Gitcoin - Rockstars of Ethereum
Misc
Meme of the Week
Looking for Work?
Top jobs listed on Cryptocurrency Jobs this week:
Web3 Engineer - ParaSwap
Full Stack JavaScript Engineer - Argent
Senior Front End Engineer - xToken Labs
Head of Ecosystem Development - Chainlink
+1000’s more on the Cryptocurrency Jobs website!