• Safe unveils the Safenet processor network.

• Fluid proposes a rebrand.

• EF ESP announces Q3 allocations.

• Arbitrum One hits $20 billion in TVL.

Safe unveiled Safenet, a transaction processor network designed to address the challenges of liquidity fragmentation and enhance cross-chain transaction capabilities. Targeting the ambitious goal of managing the world’s GDP onchain, Safenet can function on top of various blockchains, including Ethereum, alt-L1s, L2s, and even offchain networks such as Visa and Binance. The network will feature fast execution, unified asset balances, offchain channels, and customizable security policies. The alpha version of Safenet is slated for release in the first quarter of 2025. Safenet plans to launch across the entire Safe ecosystem, encompassing over 200 apps and the Safe{Wallet}, in the second half of 2025. Safe is the leading smart wallet provider, with more than 30 million accounts securing over $100 billion in assets.

Fluid, a DEX developed by InstaDapp, released a proposal aiming for a rebrand and strategic enhancements to accelerate growth in the new DeFi protocol. The proposal includes a buyback program that could use up to 100% of the protocol's revenue for buybacks. It sets a goal of achieving a $10 billion market size by late 2025 and plans to establish protocol-owned liquidity on the DEX. Since its mainnet launch in October 2024, Fluid has rapidly grown to a $1 billion market size. The Fluid DEX introduces innovative features such as Smart Debt and Smart Collateral, which allow users to convert their debt into trading liquidity by using it as collateral in AMM pools. The proposal is now open for community discussion.

The EF Ecosystem Support Program released an allocation update of projects that received funding in Q3 2024. A total of $12.8 million was allocated to 75 different projects. The grant categories include community education, cryptography, developer tooling, consensus layer, execution layer, and protocol support. Grant recipients include client teams, account abstraction teams, and Ethereum Protocol Fellowship. The EF Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) runs several initiatives focused on providing both financial and non-financial support to teams. Users building projects that enhance Ethereum can visit esp.ethereum.foundation to view funding opportunities.

For the first time, Aritrum One hit $20 billion in TVL. The milestone coincides with a recent rise in the price of ARB, alongside the overall market. ARB makes up nearly a quarter of the TVL given the token’s market cap of $4.3 billion. Arbitrum is not only the largest L2 by TVL, but it also holds the most bridged ETH among L2s. Base has risen as a competing rollup, which is now the second-largest rollup by TVL with over $12 billion in assets on the network. The overall TVL across all L2s has reached an ATH of $54.65 billion.

• Vitalik: What I would love to see in a wallet

• Everclear proposes token migration

• Succinct Network whitepaper

• Aztec Privacy-First CBDCs report

• ENS introduces Public Goods Builder Grants

• Optimism Superchain Registry

• Kain: Infinex V2

• Introducing Unclouded

• Alex Mashinsky pleads guilty

• Ethereum Beacon Chain turns four.

• EF launches ETH Rangers program.

• Jon Charbonneau on Ethereum’s North Star.

• Coinbase Onramp integrates Apple Pay.

December 1, 2024 marks four years since Ethereum’s Beacon Chain launched on mainnet, with its genesis block created on December 1, 2020. At its inception, the Beacon Chain saw approximately 500,000 ETH deposited on the first day. Today, over 34 million ETH—representing 28% of the total ether supply—is staked on the Beacon Chain, supported by more than 10,000 node operators. The Beacon Chain has achieved 100% uptime since its launch. On September 15, 2022, it merged seamlessly with Ethereum's execution layer, marking Ethereum's complete transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. Reflecting on the anniversary, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake expressed optimism for Ethereum's future, highlighting the potential for incremental Layer 1 improvements in the years ahead.

The Ethereum Foundation's Protocol Security Research Team and Ecosystem Funding Initiative launched ETH Rangers, a new program offering $25,000 stipends to individuals and projects improving security within the Ethereum ecosystem. Eligible work includes vulnerability research, the creation of educational resources, pro-bono incident handling, audits, and tooling development. The program aims to support and incentivize Public Goods Security Work within the Ethereum ecosystem.  The application period for the first wave runs from November 21, 2024, to December 31, 2024, with recipients announced on January 20, 2025. The Ethereum Foundation is also looking to hire two Security Engineers.

Jon Charbonneau published an article analyzing Ethereum’s lack of a "North Star" and proposed strategies for establishing a vision. He notes Bitcoin’s focus on digital gold, Solana’s emphasis on high-performance global finance, and Celestia’s goal of enabling unstoppable applications. Charbonneau argues that a well-defined and unified purpose is crucial for Ethereum to maintain its leadership. The article outlines competing visions for Ethereum, including whether its primary objective should be to excel as sound money, a cutting-edge technology platform, or a mix of both. He advocates for more decisive, top-down leadership to set a clearer direction, aligning infrastructure development with user-driven use cases and engaging more deeply with the applications shaping Ethereum’s ecosystem. Charbonneau suggests prioritizing the "world computer" vision, calling for aggressive Layer 1 scaling to enhance Ethereum’s performance while preserving its decentralization ethos.

Coinbase launched an Apple Pay integration for fast and seamless fiat-to-crypto purchases. The feature enables instant transactions, lightweight KYC requirements, and simplifies the entire process, taking just seconds. Coinbase Onramp also offers free USDC on and off-ramping transactions. With over 60 million Apple Pay users in the U.S., developers can integrate one-click-buy functionality into their apps. Existing apps using Coinbase Onramp automatically gain access to the feature.

• ZKsync introduces SSO

• ZKsync begins ZIP-002 vote

• Pectra introduces new system contracts

• Celestia 8MB blocks live on Arabica testnet

• Consensus to increase blob count

• EF ZK Funding grants

• 40 invalid blocks incident

• Camelot modular incentive system

• Research on increasing Ethereum's blob count.

• Arbitrim introduces Trailblazer AI grants.

• Applications open for the Next Billion Fellowship.

• Starknet v0.13.3 goes live on mainnet.

Sam Calder-Mason from the ethPandaOps team released a research article examining the feasibility of increasing Ethereum's blob count using community-contributed data on block and blob arrival times. The analysis indicates that Ethereum could support an increase in the target/max blob count from 3/6 to 4/8 or 6/9, demonstrating strong performance even within current bandwidth limitations. The research also underscored that MEV Relay nodes handle higher blob counts more effectively than locally built blocks, thanks to their superior bandwidth and parallel distribution capabilities. However, it noted that bandwidth remains a key constraint for solo stakers. The study also suggests that higher blob counts may be achievable with improvements like EIP-7623.

Arbitrum introduced Trailblazer, a new grant program allocating $1,000,000 to support builders developing specialized AI agents and onchain AI products on the Arbitrum network. Eligible projects can receive up to $10,000 in funding, provided they have AI products in production with onchain integrations on Arbitrum. In addition to financial support, participants will gain access to mentorship, Arbitrum’s developer community, and promotional opportunities to help amplify their projects. Developers with active AI projects are encouraged to apply via the application form.

The Ethereum Foundation is now accepting applications for the fifth Cohort of the Next Billion Fellowship. The fellowship is a 6-month non-technical apprenticeship that supports individuals working on a personal project that uses Ethereum to empower a better future. The key requirement for applicants is being able to publicly represent and share their work with the community. Next Billion Fellowship provides access to relevant experts, resources from the EF, and financial support. Applications are open between now and January 12, 2025. The program will run from April 2025 to October 2025 with the sixth cohort starting in September 2025.

Starknet deployed v0.13.3 to mainnet, an upgrade introducing significant improvements that lower transaction fees and data costs by optimizing the compression and submission of state updates to Ethereum L1. The upgrade reduces blob gas costs across the network by a factor of 5x. Earlier this week, Starknet launched the first phase of STRK token staking on mainnet, enabling users to earn rewards by either becoming validators or delegating their STRK tokens to validators.

• Aave hits $33b in deposits

• Challenge with Tornado Cash ruling

• Coinbase will not support Celo hard fork

• Revisiting the world computer

• BlackRock (ETHA) Daily ETH Flows: +55.6m