• Rocket Pool activates the Saturn 0 upgrade.

• Vyper outlines security enhancements.

• Astria goes live on mainnet alpha.

• Infinex raises $67.7 million.

Decentralized Ethereum staking protocol Rocket Pool, successfully activated the Saturn 0 upgrade on October 28, 2024, at 0 UTC. The Saturn 0 upgrade removes the RPL stake requirement for new minipools, allowing solo stakers to deploy minipools with just 8 ETH. It also included a Houston Hotfix and RPL Tokenomics Rework. While RPL is no longer mandatory, staking still provides access to additional rewards, boosted APY, and governance participation within the Protocol DAO. ETH-only minipools now earn a 5% base commission, with opportunities to increase yield through the new Dynamic Commission model by joining the Smoothing Pool. Saturn 0 is the first in a series of three planned upgrades. Future upgrades will introduce protocol fee sharing and lower minimum stake requirements. Read more: Saturn Explainer.

Vyper, the second-most popular smart contract programming language, published a blog on the current state of its security. Over the last year, the team has completed 12 audits, launched two bug bounty programs, hosted a security contest, and implemented a contract monitoring system, addressing over 100 security findings. The enhanced security efforts come as Vyper experienced critical zero-day vulnerability last year. In addition to audits, Vyper has expanded its testing infrastructure and developed a runtime semantics interpreter called ivy. To maintain progress, Vyper is seeking community support through public goods funding initiatives.

Astria, a shared sequencing layer, is now live on mainnet alpha, enabling rollups to use the network for decentralized sequencing. Astria uses Celestia for data availability and offers fast confirmations with 2-second block times and single-slot finality. Astria only sequences transactions without executing them, giving rollups the flexibility to choose their preferred execution layer. The mainnet alpha operates on a proof-of-authority (PoA) consensus with an initial set of 11 validators. Developers can now build on Astria mainnet using the Astria Stack and the Astria Execution API.

Infinex raised $67.7 million through its token crowdfund by selling over 40,000 Patron NFTs to community members and angel investors. The platform focuses on competing with centralized exchanges by enhancing the user experience and leveraging smart accounts to reduce friction. Infinex serves as a streamlined interface for trading Synthetix Perpetuals.

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