Crypto && Coffee 129
Technology Recap:
BitcoinThe term "Bitcoin" can either refer to Bitcoin the network, ... More:
John Law posted to the Lightning-Dev mailing list a description of a protocol optimized for creating channel factories. These would allow multiple users to trustlessly open multiple channels between pairs of users with only a single transaction on-chain.
Bitcoin Core v24.0.1 is a new major release with various new features including an option to configure the node’s Replace-By-Fee (RBF) policy, new RPC calls and watch-only descriptors for Miniscript expressions.
Ethereum:
The Ethereum Foundation releases their final roundup of 2022 with focus on Research and Development.
The Protocol Guild is announced! This is a split contract which distributes donated application tokens over a vesting period to a self-curated list of Ethereum protocol contributors.
Ben Edgington shares notes on the last ConsensusConsensus is a mechanism to achieve the necessary agreement ... More Implementers call of 2022. The call focused on the upcoming Shanghai testnet and Capella upgrade.
Tim Beiko published a recap of the last AllCoreDevs update for 2022. The call focused on Shanghai/Capella with a finalized scope with focus on which EIPs would be included in the upgrades. The majority of EIPs included in Shanghai are part of a single EVM Object Format (EOF).
Nethermind publishes their v1.15.0 release which contains the merging PRs for Shanghai as well as ETH/67 support.
Erigon releases v2.32.0 with various bug fixes and modifications to their P2P sentry to deal with peers who aggressively prune old blocks.
Prysmatic Labs publishes their latest release, v3.2.0, which includes many improvements and substantial progress towards the upcoming Capella upgrade.
Other Chains:
Inverse Finance shares that they will enact a more defensive approach in their liquidity operations. Supporting a more positive price auction for INV will help prepare them for entering the next crypto bull market.
Scroll, the native zk-EVM will be performing a scheduled pre-alpha release in order to roll out some new performance enhancements that will help drive higher throughput.
ChainSafe proposes an integration using Aztec Network to bring privacy to ENS (Ethereum Name Service).
Skip Protocol shares the current Cosmos EVM trends over the last year.
BNB looks to create a trustless scaling solution for BNB Smart Chain through zero-knowledge proofs.
Nunchuk introduces the Honey Badger WalletA wallet is a device (a hardware device, a program, or servi... More, a safe self-custody solution with inheritance planning.
LI.FI presents their End of Year Review on the cross-chain ecosystem.
MoonPay is now live as Uniswap’s fiat on-ramp.
Syntropy becomes part of the Interchain as they migrate from Polkadot to Cosmos to power their vision for a decentralized Internet.
Lido Finance shares their analytics for the middle of December as their staking deposits increased on all chains except Kusama.
A proposal was published to deploy Aave V3 on Celo to expand their lending and green asset collateral to more users.
Optimism shares their Year in Review!
Hacks | Vulnerabilities | Exploits:
On December 3rd, 2022 BTC.com’s mining poolMining pools are groups of cooperating miners who agree to s... More lost ~$3M in a cyber attack which was reported to law enforcement in Shenzhen, China. The company has not released any further details.
A new style of hack was outlined on December 22nd, 2022 which exploited OpenSea’s gasless sales feature which was used to compromise a number of NFTs.
SlowMist released their investigation into North Korean APT’s (Advanced Persistent Threat) on December 24th, 2022 which detailed the large-scale phishing campaign on NFTA Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a token that is unique in such... More users.
On December 25th, 2022 Rubic Exchange, suffered an exploit that led to the loss of ~$1.4M in user funds. The routing contracts were compromised which allowed the attacker to exploit the contract and take user’s funds when they contacted the contract for approval.
On January 2nd, 2023 Dedaub disclosed a critical vulnerability to the Uniswap team. The vulnerability allows reentrancy to drain the user’s funds mid transaction.
Mainstream Recap:
The Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC issue a joint statement on crypto-asset risks to banking organizations.
FTX’s Gary Wang and Alameda’s Caroline Ellison plead guilty to federal charges, cooperating with prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
The former CEO of AAX, Liang Haoming, and the founder of AAX, Thor Chan, were arrested on December 23rd, 2022. The two are accused of fraud and misleading police.
Wallets associated with Alameda Research, the sister company to FTX, were seen transferring funds days after CEO Sam Bankman Fried was released on a $250M bond. The funds moved on December 27th, 2022 and utilized swapping servicesGeneral services, including non-profits, forums and news sit... More to move into Bitcoin.
More than 100 BTC connected to the defunct Canadian crypto exchange, QuadrigaCX were transferred out of cold wallets thought to be beyond anyone’s control. Some of the funds, ~69BTC were sent to Wasabi on December 17th, 2022.
TRM Labs states that new evidence confirms ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan is accepting cryptocurrencyA cryptocurrency (or crypto currency) is a digital asset des... More donations.
Visa publishes an article on Auto Payments for Self-Custodial Wallets.
China launches a national digital assets exchange for NFTs and metaverse.
This Week’s Cup of Coffee:
This week, we are headed to San Francisco, CA for a cup of Owl’s Howl from Sightglass Coffee. This espresso blend yields flavors of cacao nib, stone fruit, and hints of orange peel. Perfect as a simple single shot or via drip (Chemex or V60) this well-balanced cup will definitely jump start your day! Sip up and enjoy!!