EthHub Weekly #62
Coinbase may acquire Xapo, Cheeze Wizards goes live, HTC Exodus integrates Kyber and much more!
Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)
🔨 Built on Ethereum
There is an explosion of innovation happening on Ethereum and we as a community should be highlighting this for the world to see. That’s why we’ve created a branding kit that dApp developers can use to show off that their products and services are built on the most powerful, secure and used smart contract platform on the planet. The branding kit is completely free to use so we encourage all developers to place it somewhere appropriate on their product or service.
Also, don’t forget to tune into our weekly recap podcast to hear all about Erics adventures at blockchain week - it’s due to go out in around 36 hours from now.
Have a great week everyone!
- Anthony
News of the Week
💸 Coinbase May Acquire Xapo
Coinbase is in advanced talks to buy custody provider Xapo for ~$50 million plus an earn-out in order to boost its custody business.
Coinbase and Fidelity Digital Assets have been locked in a neck-and-neck race for the prized asset for the past few weeks, with Coinbase ultimately prevailing. If the tentative terms being discussed hold, Coinbase will pay ~$50 million in cash for Xapo, plus a contingent earn-out for remaining with the company. Xapo raised $40 million since its founding in 2012.
Xapo’s core product is cold storage vault custody of bitcoin, with rumors that the company holds as much as $5.5 billion of assets under custody (AUC) at the current $BTC price near $8,000, reflecting ~700K bitcoin under custody. Xapo custodies 226,000 BTC that are part of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
🤔 Facebook Registers Secretive ‘Libra’ Cryptocurrency Firm in Switzerland
According to a Reuters report, Facebook registered a new company, Libra Networks, in Geneva on May 2. This coincides with the slow roll-out of their internal cryptocurrency that will define the company’s first foray into blockchain technology.
Facebook Global Holdings is a stockholder in the new company and it will, according to Reuters, “provide financial and technology services and develop related hardware and software, plans submitted on the Swiss register reveal.”
Facebook’s march towards crypto has been slow and steady. The company’s latest move, the hiring of two Coinbase compliance managers, happened on May 14.
😕 Amazon Wins Patent for Proof-of-Work Cryptographic System
Tech giant Amazon has been granted a patent for various techniques to build a proof-of-work (PoW) cryptographic system similar to those used by blockchains such as bitcoin.
First filed in December 2016 and awarded Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the patent outlines how Merkle trees can be generated as a solution to a proof-of-work challenge, among other benefits.
😔 Hacked Cryptocurrency Exchange Cryptopia Goes Into Liquidation
Cryptopia, the cryptocurrency exchange hit by a major hack in mid-January, has gone into liquidation and suspended trading operations.
The news was announced Wednesday by Cryptopia’s assigned liquidator, professional services firm Grant Thornton New Zealand. Cryptopia confirmed the news on Twitter, as well as on its website.
Project Updates
EIP 1679: Hardfork Meta: Istanbul
The deadline for submitting EIPs for Instanbul has passed (17th of May) and we now have a list of all the proposed EIPs. There is a total 16 EIPs with the most well known being EIP-1057 (ProgPoW) and EIP-1559 (the fee market change).
Dharma Introduces Instant Matching
Instant matching is a new feature that will enhance Dharma’s usability by enabling lenders to match immediately — no more waiting for a borrower who wants to borrow that exact amount because instant matching pools offers together.
Cheeze Wizards Goes Live
Cheeze Wizards is a new blockchain-based game from Dapper Labs - the creators of CryptoKitties. Players can summon Wizards to compete in a global tournament for a title and an ETH prize pool.
Lighthouse Update #11
The team over at Sigma Prime have been hard at work updating and improving their eth2.0 testnet clients.
SKALE Decentralized Storage
This week, the team at SKALE have released their decentralized storage solution to the world. In this post, SKALE explains how the system works and how it improves on existing services such as IPFS.
Nuo Partners with Wyre
Crypto users in the U.S will be able to earn interest on their digital assets by linking their debit card to Wyre and then converting up to $40 per day into stablecoins to start earning interest.
What’s new at Argent?
You can now buy ETH with fiat within Argent if you live in Europe, share a ‘Golden Token’ with a friend (that gives them access to Argent) and you can now hold WBTC in your Argent wallet.
HTC Exodus Integrates Kyber
The HTC Exodus phone has now integrated Kyber Network’s liquidity protocol into its Zion Vault which allows users to easily swap between cryptocurrencies in a decentralized way.
Don’t forget to check out Kybers second ecosystem report here.
Flexa Network Goes Live
Major brands such as GameStop, Nordstrom and Whole Foods now accept BTC, ETH and BCH via Flexas SPEDN app - powered by Gemini.
OMG Network v0.2 Announced
OMG v0.2 (codenamed Samrong) brings with it a number of improvements including new transaction signatures using the EIP 712 standard and the addition of a meta-data field to transactions.
Community Member Spotlight
This week we’re highlighting the work of Kerman Kohli!
Kerman is an Ethereum developer currently working with the Helis Network team.
He also runs the ‘DeFi Weekly’ newsletter and publishes various blogs on his website.
On-Chain Activity
An end of an era - CDP #3228 is almost fully paid off
Dharma continues its incredible growth
Daily fees paid more than doubled on the Ethereum network this week
Interesting Tweets
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
Holding Every Private Key in the Palm of Your Hand: Beyond Chainsplaining Part III
A Journey Through Phase 2 of Ethereum 2.0 (recommended read)
Lesson Learned: There is No Such Thing as Too Much Feedback on Blockchain Transactions
10 ConsenSys Announcements From Ethereal Summit NY: Kaleido, OpenLaw, Alethio, Pegasys
Podcasts
Argent: The Immense Benefits of Smart Contract Wallets - Into the Ether
The Role and Challenges of the Ethereum Foundation - Epicenter
RealT: Tokenized Real Estate - POV Crypto
Videos
Misc
Looking for Work?
Top jobs listed on Cryptocurrency Jobs this week
Admin and Operations Manager - Parity Tech
Trading Support Associate - Blockchain
Sr. Security Analyst - SALT Lending
Technical Writer - Zeppelin
+100’s more on the Cryptocurrency Jobs website!
Donations: 0xA19FCDaD77C1F0fd184689aca88BabCF68010347