crypto community - Pwim.Net

Ethereum to Implement New "Devcon Improvement Proposals" for Devcon Colombia 2021

Ethereum gathering has announced a new way for its crypto community to get more involved for next year’s Devcon event.

What is Devcon?

Each year, Ethereum Foundation hosts a public gathering, dubbed “Devcon” for developers and members of their community. The goal of the event is to unite blockchain enthusiasts and coders under one roof to discuss how to build collectively, generate more ideas to further blockchain growth, and bounce innovative technological proposals off each other.

This year, Ethereum announced through their blog that they will be integrating a new aspect to Devcon, a concept they dub “Devcon Improvement Proposals” (DIP). Devcon Improvement Proposals are new tools set in place by the Devcon organizing team of Ethereum that aims to involve the community and integrate their input to improve the ETH ecosystem. Ethereum Foundation thinks that the inputs provided for DIP purposes will paint a better depiction of the Ethereum ecosystem in its entirety for Devcon attendees.

Devcon Improvement Proposal Categories

For each Devcon Improvement Proposal, there is a category to file and process the different ideas put forward by the community. There are four procedures – draft, accepted, postponed, and rejected. The categories are straightforward. Draft entails that the proposal will be tweaked and transformed into a better final version; accepted means that the Ethereum team has approved it; postponed dictates that the idea will not be adopted in this edition of Devcon; and finally, rejected entails that the idea will simply not be implemented.

Ethereum announced that next year’s event will be hosted in Colombia. For the time being, the conference still does not have a confirmed date. Devcon 2021 will be the sixth edition launched by Ethereum Foundation, the first being in 2014 in Berlin, Germany.

Progress on ETH 2.0 Testnet

Next year’s Devcon event will be fairly interesting, as the Ethereum Foundation has recently been developing its final testnet Medalla. This multi-client net is to be the last one released before Ethereum 2.0 rolls into play. Ethereum is aspiring to transition fully to a Proof-of-Stake consensus from a Proof-of-Work protocol, and currently boasts of high scalability for a blockchain, in comparison to Bitcoin.

At the beginning of this week, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also discussed his blockchain project on Peter McCormack’s podcast episode, saying that he predicts Ethereum 2.0 mainnet to only be ready for public use in another 24 months.

The Ethereum co-founder is very proud of his team and is anticipating phase one of Medalla testnet, where sharding will be experimented to test out high scalability, a feature that is to be expected of the new chain. Speaking about Medalla’s progress and the current phase 0 implementation, Buterin said:

“It does not yet include sharding, that starts in phase one but for sharding, the spec is very close to finished so it’s just a matter of waiting for implementers to feel like they’ve done enough on the phase zero side and move onto phase one.”

DeFi and Crypto Community Explode as Robinhood Halts GameStop (GME) Trades

Robinhood’s decision to stop the purchases of GameStop (GME) shares, along with AMC (AMC) and Blackberry (BBE), has spurred outrage from the cryptocurrency community.

Although traders can still sell their shares, many are against the platform’s decision to delist GME, AMC, and BBE. Robinhood, along with other trading platforms such as Ameritrade has moved to cancel the purchase of GME, after GameStop rocked the trading world, soaring to unfathomable heights after a group of Redditors pushed its value up on subreddit r/WallStreetBets. Jeremy Gardner, the founder of the Blockchain Education Network, said:

“It’s absolutely fascinating that a decade of crypto evangelism is perhaps on par (in terms of impact) with two weeks of Robinhood degenerate equity meme trading for waking people up to the inequities in our financial system.”

A crypto enthusiast responded that he wished that it was crypto that made people realize the flaws in today’s current financial system, instead of GameStop. He responded to Gardner’s thread, saying:

“I just hope this sentiment continues and doesn’t just sputter and die. I always thought it would be crypto that would wake people up, instead it was fucking GameStop.”

Many have protested against Robinhood’s call, saying that this was a problem with centralized financial systems. Dave Portnoy, the infamous Barstool Sports founder who previously dipped his toe in Bitcoin and crypto, aided by the Gemini co-founders’ advice, said:

“I will burn @robinhoodApp to the ground if they shut down free market trading.”

Although Robinhood’s call to shut down GME, AMC, and BBE stocks have been viewed as infuriating, many have declared that this will be good for crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi). Eric Conner, the co-founder of ethhub, said:

“We are getting the best DeFi ads for free.”

Crypto and DeFi to benefit from GME’s bull run?

Gardner went a step further and predicted that the frenzy surrounding GameStop’s overnight success will likely ricochet off crypto, triggering a bull run. He said:

“I think today likely will mark the beginning of the retail bull run on crypto this cycle. 24/7 trading, no censorship, and the incumbents tend to be long. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it but should be interesting.”

While GME skyrocketing off the back of retail traders pumping its price up has served to convert many to the idea of decentralization, some DeFi experts are saying that there are still issues to be fixed within the sector. Jill Carlson, a major startup investor at Slow Ventures, provides a reminder that not everything in DeFi is rose-coloured glasses. She said:

“Crypto UX is entirely and utterly broken. If you are actually using it (not via a third party) it is borderline unusable. Even for those of us who have been doing it for the better part of a decade.”

In other words, the answer may not be as simple as transitioning from financial stocks to cryptocurrencies, which is what many have been quick to suggest. Even the experience of trading on decentralized exchanges is different from transacting with Bitcoin on crypto platforms like Coinbase. Although crypto exchanges lean more towards the decentralized side, they are not immune to centralized financial systems.

A clear example is when many crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, moved to delist and halt XRP trading on their platforms, in response to the SEC lawsuit against Ripple, in fear it may mean potential regulatory consequences for them too.

MicroStrategy Bitcoin Buying Splits The Crypto Community

MicroStrategy, a business that specializes in software analytics, has recently increased the amount of Bitcoin that it holds.The decision was met with a variety of opinions from members of the crypto community.Michael Saylor, the executive chairman of MicroStrategy, revealed the company’s latest Bitcoin acquisition in a tweet that was published not too long ago.Because to this transaction, the company now has a total holdings of 132,500 BTC, which were acquired for a total of $4.03 billion but are only worth around $2.1 billion as of the time this article was written.The action was praised by a large number of people, however others pointed out certain possible adverse repercussions.A member of the community gave high admiration to the chairman of MicroStrategy, describing him as a “rock star” whose purpose is to provide banking services to those who do not have access to them.Others expressed their delight at the new information by declaring that they would follow suit and purchase more Bitcoins for themselves.However, there are some people who aren’t really excited about the company’s cryptocurrency purchasing.Some people believe that this new move may have the ability to cause a new minimum price for the leading digital asset.Bitcoin experts Willy Woo and Dan Held engaged in a back-and-forth discussion on Twitter over MicroStrategy’s acquisition, offering their perspectives along the way.Bitcoin users, in Woo’s view, have no reason to rejoice if a corporation increases the amount of Bitcoin that it has.The analyst noted that the accumulation of additional Bitcoin by MicroStrategy creates dangers of centralization due to the centralized nature of the company’s decision-making process. Held presented a rebuttal to this argument by stating that there would be no dangers associated with centralization since ownership does not equal network control.The expert emphasized that there is no method to restrict who purchases Bitcoin and that individuals or businesses are free to purchase whatever amount of BTC they like.Saylor, meantime, has only just made public the company’s intention to start offering solutions for the Lightning Network in 2019. According to the CEO, the business is already exploring the possibility of implementing software and solutions that make use of the Lightning Network.

DeFi Hack Linked to North Korea

The DeFi world was rocked when Euler Finance fell victim to the biggest DeFi hack of 2023, with $197 million in funds stolen. Since then, the crypto community has been closely following the on-chain movements of the stolen funds, hoping to track down the attacker. Blockchain investigator Chainalysis recently identified that 100 ETH from the stolen funds was transferred to an address linked to North Korea.

The hacker responsible for the Euler Finance hack also transferred 3,000 ETH to Euler’s deployer account without disclosing their intent. However, no other transfers have been made at the time of writing, leaving many in the crypto community speculating whether the hacker was trolling or if they genuinely considered accepting Euler Finance’s bounty reward of $20 million.

While Chainalysis has linked the stolen funds to North Korea, it has also highlighted the possibility of misdirection by other hackers. It is unclear whether North Korea is actually involved in the hack or if the hacker was simply using the address to throw investigators off their trail.

The Euler Finance hack has raised questions about the security of DeFi platforms, as Euler Labs CEO Michael Bentley expressed disappointment in the hack, revealing that ten separate audits over two years had assured its security. The fact that the hacker was still able to access and steal the funds has highlighted the need for stronger security measures in DeFi platforms.

The use of DeFi platforms has skyrocketed in recent years, and the potential rewards have attracted many hackers seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in the system. This has led to an increase in DeFi hacks, with many experts calling for stronger security measures to protect investors’ funds. The Euler Finance hack serves as a reminder that even with multiple security audits, DeFi platforms are not immune to hacks, and investors should exercise caution when investing in these platforms.

Gensler Alleged Crypto Hypocrisy

The cryptocurrency community has criticized Gary Gensler, the current chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), after a video from 2018 surfaced in which he stated that cryptocurrencies are comparable to commodities or cash and are not securities. This has led to criticism of Gensler from the cryptocurrency community. As a result of this, hypocrisy allegations have been leveled at Gensler since his present position seems to contradict his prior views.

Gensler explained initial coin offerings (ICOs) and the Howey test in the video, which was taken from a seminar entitled “Blockchain and Money” that took place during the Fall Semester of 2018 at the university. He made the observation that “three-quarters of the market are not ICOs or not what would be called securities,” and he identified the markets in the United States, Canada, and Taiwan as countries that adhere to criteria that are comparable to those of the Howey test. The next statement that he made was that “three-quarters of the market is non-securities, it’s just a commodity, cash, and crypto.”

Gensler briefly admitted that initial coin offerings (ICOs) may ignite a discussion over securities, but he ultimately came to the conclusion that “three-quarters of the market is not particularly relevant as a legal matter.” However, in his present capacity as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gensler has adopted a more harsh attitude on cryptocurrencies, with the SEC starting a series of high-profile investigations against crypto businesses in recent months. Gensler’s stance on cryptocurrencies reflects the SEC’s increased scrutiny of the industry.

The crypto community reacted swiftly to Gensler’s apparent shift of viewpoint, and many members were keen to point it out. “Wow” was all that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had to say in response to a message that was published by cryptocurrency researcher “zk-SHARK.” In a tweet sent at his 658,900 followers, Erik Voorhees, the inventor of the cryptocurrency trading website ShapeShift, inquired as to when someone will be imprisoned for fraud. Farokh Sarmad, the inventor of the Web3 podcast Rug Radio, referred to Gensler as “disgusting” in a tweet that he sent out to his 346,200 followers, and a systems engineer who went by the handle “JD” demanded that Gensler provide an explanation for his shift in position.

On the other hand, not all members of the cryptocurrency community were on board with these comments. U.S. attorney Preston Byrne claimed that Gensler’s opinions as a professor should not be used against him in his present function as a law enforcement, since Gensler works in a different capacity than he did when he was a professor.

The continuous regulatory ambiguity that surrounds the cryptocurrency business is brought to light by the controversy over Gensler’s position on cryptocurrencies. As the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulatory authorities continue to probe crypto firms, many participants in the industry are advocating for clearer standards and laws to assist enable the growth and development of the sector.

dYdX Utilizes $9M Insurance Fund Following Alleged Targeted Attack on YFI

The decentralized exchange (DEX) dYdX experienced a significant financial event on November 17, requiring the use of its insurance fund. The exchange had to cover $9 million worth of customer liquidations following a dramatic market fluctuation. Antonio Juliano, the creator of dYdX, labeled the event as a “targeted attack,” suggesting a deliberate attempt to destabilize the exchange’s financial stability.

Before November 17, the price of Yearn Finance (YFI) token surged by over 170%, only to plummet by 43% on the day of the incident. This abrupt price drop has raised concerns within the crypto community about potential market manipulation or even an exit scam. The focus of the alleged attack was on long positions in YFI tokens on the dYdX platform, leading to nearly $38 million in holdings being liquidated.

Juliano emphasized that the v3 insurance fund, despite the substantial payout, remains well-funded with $13.5 million. He reassured users that their funds were not impacted by the incident. In response to community concerns, dYdX announced that no user funds were affected and that an investigation is underway. Furthermore, dYdX is conducting a thorough review of its risk parameters and considering changes to both the v3 and potentially the dYdX Chain software to enhance security and prevent similar occurrences.

The crypto community has expressed alarm at the sudden market shift, with some speculating about insider involvement in manipulating the YFI market. Concerns were raised about the sufficiency of the remaining insurance fund and the steps dYdX is taking to prevent future attacks. There were claims that developers controlled multiple wallets holding a significant percentage of YFI tokens, though these claims were not conclusively backed by Etherscan data.

dYdX’s commitment to transparency in its investigation process is crucial in maintaining user trust. The team is collaborating with several partners to uncover the specifics of the incident and is expected to provide updates as new information emerges.

Memeland (MEME) Launches Zero-Fee Social Staking Protocol Stakeland

Stakeland, a new social staking protocol, has been announced by the creators behind Memeland and the meme coin $MEME, according to a recent post on X. As a community-first initiative, Stakeland aims to enhance the meme coin environment by providing a zero-fee staking platform that enables users to earn tokens from emerging projects.

What is Stakeland?

Stakeland is introduced as a social staking protocol with a strong community focus, developed by the team behind Memeland. It aims to bolster the Memeland ecosystem and accelerate the growth of the associated meme coin, $MEME. By staking crypto assets like $MEME or others, users can earn tokens from new projects, participating in early project stages to garner rewards at minimal costs.

Why Stakeland?

Drawing on its founders’ strong web2 background and promising start in web3, Stakeland acknowledges that launching a successful token is a complex task. Despite strong teams and products, a successful token launch is not guaranteed, highlighting the need for a platform like Stakeland.

How Stakeland Works

Users stake $MEME and other crypto assets in exchange for Steaks, which are then “burnt” to acquire new tokens launched on the platform. The process also involves participating in simple, fun quests to learn more about these new projects, supporting new ventures with a committed community base.

Stakeland’s Strength

Stakeland is backed by Memeland, Asia’s number one NFT ecosystem and a top-ten contender globally by market cap. $MEME itself is a top-ten meme coin and NFT-related coin, with over $3 billion in fully diluted valuation and a market cap exceeding $500 million.

Cost of Using Stakeland

Stakeland operates with no fees, offering a community-first and equal distribution system. Users can stake and unstake their crypto assets anytime without a platform fee, only incurring the standard gas fee.

Stakeland’s Support for New Projects

The protocol provides comprehensive support to token projects, including introductions to high-value investors, liquidity providers, and market makers.

Future of Stakeland

The initial version of Stakeland (v0) has been launched with basic features, and future developments include the introduction of new tokens, staking tiers, stablecoin and hybrid staking options, and a leaderboard system.

Conclusion and Gentle Reminders

Stakeland presents itself as a significant development in the meme coin community, offering new opportunities for growth and engagement. As with all investments, potential users are reminded to stay vigilant against scams and only invest what they can afford to lose.