Polygon Plans POL Upgrade In September
POL will replace MATIC as the primary staking and gas token on Polygon, expanding to support new roles on the AggLayer.
Polygon plans MATIC to POL migration.
Optimism opens Security Council nominations.
Nethermind releases Sedge v1.14
Self-built blocks increase base gas volatility.
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Polygon announced that it will upgrade the staking contract for the Polygon PoS network on September 4th, changing the primary staking and gas token from MATIC to POL at a 1:1 ratio. POL is a new hyperproductive token that will enable validators to validate multiple ZK chains The POL upgrade has already been deployed on testnet. The migration is part of Polygon’s 2.0 roadmap, which transitions the PoS Chain into Polygon ZK-EVM as part of the AggLayer. In subsequent upgrades, POL will be used to support roles in block generation, data availability, and ZKP generation. No action is required from MATIC holders on Polygon PoS, however, MATIC holders on other chains may need to take action for the migration.
Nominations are open for Cohort A of the Optimism Security Council. The council consists of 13 members split into two cohorts with staggered elections. Seven member roles and a council lead are currently up for election. Anyone can self-nominate by posting their application in the Optimism governance forum by August 14th. Elections will be held from August 22nd to 28th, with new members starting their 12-month term on February 9th. The Security Council manages upgrade keys for OP Stack chains on the Superchain, requiring 75% of members to sign to execute emergency protocol upgrades. The elections follow Optimism's recent advancement to a Stage 1 rollup with the activation fraud proofs.
Nethermind released Sedge v1.4.0, an updated version of its node and validator deployment tool. The release features keys to generate 0x01 withdrawal credentials. The release also supports the Lido Community Staking Module (CSM) and MEV-Boost on the Holesky testnet. Sedge aims to lower technical barriers for solo stakers by providing a 1-click setup tool that automatically configures the client setup process, including the installation of any dependencies. The tool supports all four execution layer and all four consensus layer Ethereum clients.
Blockchain infrastructure provider Blocknative reported that self-built blocks, which contain only public transactions, have unexpectedly increased base fee volatility. Blocknative says the reason is due to the rise of private transactions and timing games in MEV-Boost auctions. Self-built blocks utilize only 18.2% of gas space, while blocks with private transactions use 97.6%. The inefficient gas space utilization unintentionally leads to gas volatility, impacting the effectiveness of self-built blocks.
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Virgil Griffith Granted Sentence Reduction
The seven-month sentence reduction should allow Griffith to be released this August.
Virgil Griffith is granted a sentence reduction.
Fractal ID suffers a data breach.
Optimism retro funding round 4 results.
SEC approves two more Spot ETH ETFs.
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Virgil Griffith, an Ethereum developer sentenced for violating sanctions by delivering presentations in North Korea, has had his prison sentence reduced by seven months, from 63 months to 56 months. Griffith, who has been in custody since 2019, will be released this August. In April 2019, Griffith attended and presented at the Pyongyang Blockchain Conference in North Korea. He was arrested by the U.S. Department of Justice in November 2019 for providing technical information to North Korea, despite his presentation being based on publicly available information. In April 2022, Griffith was fined $100,000 and sentenced to 63 months in prison.
Fractal ID, a KYC identity solutions provider, experienced a data breach affecting approximately 0.5% of its user base, equating to around 5,000 users. The leaked data includes full names, email addresses, wallet addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, photos, and uploaded documents such as passports. The breach occurred on Sunday, July 14th, 2024, when an unauthorized third party accessed an operator’s account and used an API script to obtain user data. The breach has since been contained from further leaks. Fractal ID is used by many web3 projects, including Optimism, Arbitrum Grants, and Gnosis Pay. Users are advised to remain vigilant against potential misuse of their data.
Optimism released the results of its fourth retroactive funding round, awarding 207 projects a share of 10 million OP tokens, currently valued at $18 million. The round focused on onchain builders with applications engaging at least 420 unique addresses, and allocations were determined based on onchain metrics. Key metrics for the round included gas fee spend, trusted users onboarded, and trusted recurring users. The top-voted projects, Zora and Layer3, each received the maximum allocation of 500,000 OP tokens. Zora committed to distributing 300k OP tokens to its users. The fifth and sixth rounds, focusing on the OP Stack and on governance, will go live in August and September.
The SEC approved two additional 19-b4 applications for spot Ethereum ETFs, including Grayscale’s Spot Ethereum Mini ETF and the ProShares Ethereum ETF. The agency approved eight applications on May 23rd, bringing the total to 10 Spot ETH ETFs set to launch on Tuesday. Earlier today, BlackRock and Fidelity filed updated S-1 forms with fee information, both set at 0.25%. All applicants, except ProShares, have submitted what could be their final S-1s. Most issuers also included fee waivers for the initial months of trading.
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Polygon’s Plonky3 Is Production Ready
A zero-knowledge proving system designed as a modular toolkit for building zkVMs and zkEVMs.
Plonky3 is production-ready.
Polynomial introduces Polynomial Chain.
LIFI suffers a $10 million exploit.
Uniswap releases its Uniswap Extension.
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Polygon released the production-ready version of Plonky3, its latest zero-knowledge (ZK) proving system designed as a modular toolkit for building zkVMs and zkEVMs. Unlike Plonky2, which was optimized for specific hardware and recursion, Plonky3 allows developers to customize the proving system according to their specific needs, such as proof generation speed or proof size. Plonky3 includes components for using various finite fields and hash functions. It offers many proving systems within a single framework. Succinct Labs uses Plonky3 as the proving system for SP1, its general-purpose zkVM capable of proving arbitrary Rust code. Polygon will be using SP1 to generate pessimistic proofs on the Agglayer. Plonky3 is open-source under the MIT and Apache licenses.
Perpetual swaps exchange Polynomial Protocol introduced Polynomial Chain, a new Layer 2 network featuring a native liquidity layer. The chain addresses the challenges of bootstrapping liquidity by enabling new applications to tap into shared liquidity. Polynomial invites developers to build prediction markets, options markets, and structured products on its chain. Polynomial Chain will offer integrated account abstraction, aiming to bridge the gap between DeFi and centralized exchanges by providing enhanced UX. Polynomial also launched a retroactive points program to reward users of its Earn Vaults and Polynomial Trade products. Users can claim their points by making a deposit once the chain goes live.
LI.FI, the DEX and bridge aggregation protocol behind Jumper, experienced an exploit resulting in about $10 million in losses. The attack targeted users who had manually set infinite approvals for the protocol. Peckshield noted that LI.FI had previously suffered the same exploit in March 2022. The vulnerability allows attackers to make arbitrary calls to token contracts, transferring funds from users’ wallets with infinite approvals. LI.FI has since contained the exploit and is working with law enforcement to recover the stolen funds.
Uniswap launched its Uniswap Extension browser-based wallet for all users. Unlike existing browser wallets, the Uniswap Extension integrates directly into the browser's sidebar, enabling users to perform swaps, send, and receive transactions. Key features include MEV protection, automatic network switching, and access to offchain liquidity. Users can track their assets across 11 networks in a unified view.
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