EthHub Weekly #81
Kik drama, Maker details new OasisDEX, Istanbul testnets are coming, Coinbase introduces Crypto Rating Council and much more!
Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)
đ¸Â Contribute to Ethereum Open Source
Gitcoin have been running an open source contribution program alongside the Ethereum Foundation and ConsenSys to match donations made on the Gitcoin Grants website. The fun thing is that the matching is actually being done via a âLiberal Radicalismâ (otherwise known as CLR) mechanism. This means that many small contributions to a project are valued higher than a few big ones. For example, a 1 DAI donation can result in a matching multiple of up to 179x (1 DAI turns into a 179 DAI match)!
I encourage every single person reading this to go and contribute any amount you can to as many projects you can on Gitcoin (and donât forget to share it on Twitter when you do)! This round of matching ends in a couple of days so be sure to make your contribution as soon as possible.
Weâd also like to extend a big thank you to everyone who donated to EthHub through Gitcoin - Eric and I are going to be putting out a bunch of bounties to get a whole bunch of content onto the EthHub documentation site after Devcon!
Have a great week everyone!
-Â Anthony
News of the Week
đ¤Â Venezuelaâs Central Bank Exploring Addition of BTC and ETH to its Reserves
The central bank of Venezuela is running internal tests to determine whether it can add cryptocurrencies, specifically bitcoin and ether, to its international reserves, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The test came at the request of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the state-owned oil and natural gas company. PDVSA is looking to have the Venezuelan central bank pay the company's suppliers on its behalf using the bitcoin and ether it has obtained.Â
Due to U.S. sanctions, PDVSA has struggled to do business with its clients and suppliers, as major banks have avoided opening business channels with the company. According to Bloomberg, it is unclear how PDVSA was able to get a hold of its bitcoin and ether. The value of its holdings is also unclear.
âď¸Â Kik Messaging App to Shut Down Following SEC Lawsuit Against ICO
Following reports its crypto-focused subsidiary Kin had laid off 70 employees, Kik Interactive CEO Ted Livingston announced last Monday that Kik will also be shutting down its core messaging service.
In a company blog post, Livingston said the ongoing dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has forced Kik to close its doors.
âAfter 18 months of working with the SEC the only choice they gave us was to either label Kin a security or fight them in court,â Livingston wrote. âSo with the SEC working to characterize almost all cryptocurrencies as securities we made the decision to step forward and fight.â
In addition to shutting down the app, Livingston said the company would shrink its crypto operations to just 19 core developers with a focus on fostering the adoption of Kikâs KIN cryptocurrency.
In other news: Coindesk fell victim to a hoax in which a fake Kik CEO claimed to quit (along with a bunch of other bizarre claims).
đ¤ŚÂ Overstock, Patrick Byrne Hit With Class Action Over âMarket Manipulationâ
An investor has launched a class action lawsuit against Overstock and two former execs, claiming securities violations through making false statements to manipulate the firmâs stock price.
According to a complaint filed Sept. 27 at the district court in Utah, Benjamin Ha alleges on behalf of himself and other investors in the firm, that between May 9 and Sept. 23, 2019, the defendants published âmaterially false and misleading statementsâ regarding the companyâs financial state.
Ha states that the defendantsâ alleged false claims allowed them to artificially inflate the value of Overstock stock and allowed former CEO Patrick Byrne to sell all of his shares â worth over $100 million at the time â at unrealistic prices. Further, according to the document, the claims allowed Overstock to sell off more stock to the market to fund its cryptocurrency projects, and caused Ha and other investors to buy stock at âartificially inflated prices.â
Project Updates
Istanbul Testnets Are Coming
The Ethereum Cat Herders have released a detailed guide on Istanbul - the latest Ethereum network upgrade. This guide runs through what a network upgrade (hard fork) is, what Istanbul is, what happens during the upgrade, what people need to do and covering which EIPs are going into the upgrade.
Update on the New Oasis
MakerDAO gives an update on the open-source OasisDEX protocol. A core element of the protocol is that it is truly decentralized and permissionless. It includes a non-custodial setup and a fully on-chain order book, has no central operator, and runs using open-source software.
Introducing the Crypto Ratings Council
Coinbase has joined crypto businesses in announcing the creation of the Crypto Rating Council, a member-operated organization formed to assist market participants that trade or support crypto assets to comply with U.S. federal securities laws. Founding members of the Council are EthererAnchorage, Bittrex, Circle, Coinbase, DRW Cumberland, Genesis, Grayscale Investments and Kraken.
How to Upgrade to MCD from SCD
Maker have put together an outline on how to prepare for the migration to Multi-collateral Dai from Single-collateral Dai. Whether youâre a Dai holder, CDP owner or any other MakerDAO participant you will need to upgrade as it is mandatory.
Immutable Raises $15 million for Gods Unchained
The team behind the popular Ethereum-based game Gods Unchained has raised $15 million from leading investors Naspers and Galaxy Digital (among others).
State Channels Developer Update #0
The first update from the new State Channels initiative details the recent merger between Counterfactual and Magmo and what it means for the two teams going forward.
Connext v2.0 on Mainnet
After two months of Rinkeby testing, audits, and bugfixing, Connext v2.0 is now deployed onto mainnet!
UniswapEX Announced
UniswapEX brings limit orders to Uniswap and allows relayers to earn a fee when executing these orders.
Blockchain Education for Beginners Announced
Harry Glynn has launched a new blockchain education initiative over at zeroknowledge.education that aims to completely simplify crypto.
Introducing Unlock User Accounts
Unlock User Accounts allow people with no knowledge of crypto to use Unlock services on selected NFT locks. Once users ready, they can then "eject" their accounts and import them into the wallet of their choice.
Ren September Development Update
A small update from the Ren team this week detailing updates to the RenVM, command center and protocol optimisations. The team also published the RenVM Mainnet Release Plan.
Community Member Spotlight
This week weâre highlighting the great work of Peter Pan!
Peter is heavily involved within the Ethereum community across many different areas but his main focuses are finding new ways to fund early stage dapp experimentation via the MetaCartel DAO and hosting the Wizard of Dapps podcast.
Peter was also one of the people responsible for organizing the recent MetaCartel Demo Day in Berlin which was a huge success!
Keep up the great work Peter!
Interesting Tweets
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
How 30+ ETH 2.0 Devs Locked Themselves in to Achieve Interoperability
Lessons in Blockchain Startups: Finding Great Partners to Build With
DEX.AG 101: What to do when youâre really in a rush but you wanna kill it with your trading
Podcasts
Ryan Sean Adams: Why Ether is Money - Into the Ether
Gnosis â The Full-Stack Predictions Market with Stefan George, Co-Founder, and CTO - Wyre Talks
Eli Ben-Sasson on the latest from StarkWare and the origin of mathematical ideas - Zero Knowledge
Flex Dapps with Alexander Ramsey and Tom Nash - Wizard of Dapps
Videos
Misc
Meme of the Week
At this point we should just rename this section to âAlexanderâs Cornerâ đ
Looking for Work?
Top jobs listed on Cryptocurrency Jobs this week:
Software Engineer - UMA
Digital Asset Analyst - MakerDAO
Product Marketing Manager - Infura
Front End Software Engineer - Messari
+100âs more on the Cryptocurrency Jobs website!
Protect Your Crypto
Buy a hardware wallet:
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