• Aztec Network goes live on testnet.

• Ethereum R1 introduces its neutral rollup.

Aztec Network is now live on public testnet, allowing developers to build fully private applications on Ethereum using the Aztec Playground. Users can also participate as sequencers or provers on the testnet. This launch marks a major milestone on Aztec’s path to mainnet. Aztec is a privacy-first protocol enabling client-side private smart contract execution with public verifiability. Its contracts combine private functions executed locally with public functions processed by the decentralized Aztec Network. Since launch, the testnet has seen over 20,000 users and 10 new apps live on the network.

Ethereum R1 introduced its general-purpose Layer 2 rollup designed to serve as Ethereum-native public infrastructure. The rollup will launch at Stage 2 from day one, featuring permissionless proving, long upgrade delays, and a broadly distributed community multisig. Built on Nethermind’s Surge stack and based on open-source code from Taiko, Ethereum R1 will allocate a 1% base fee to the Taiko DAO until 2030, after which, all sequencer fees will be burned. The project is committed to being tokenless and VC-free with no token, no private sales, and no foundation. Instead, Ethereum R1 aims to be fully funded by public ETH donations.

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• BUIDL surpasses $33m in dividends

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• Worldcoin expands to the U.S.

• Vitalik outlines decentralization goals.

• ERCs for interop addresses.

• Pectra goes live on Gnosis.

Worldcoin, the digital identity project co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, is expanding onboarding to the United States after previously excluding U.S. users due to regulatory uncertainty. The announcement was made during the Worldcoin keynote event, where the team unveiled plans to bring Orb verification to six U.S. cities. Worldcoin also announced that Orbs will now be manufactured in the U.S., with 7,500 units set to be deployed nationwide. U.S. users can access the World App and claim a WLD token airdrop upon completing verification, which requires scanning their iris with the Orb. Other announcements included a Stripe integration, the launch of a Visa-compatible World Card, and upcoming support for native USDC and CCTP V2 on World Chain.

Vitalik Buterin published an Ethereum Magicians post outlining the tradeoffs of raising Ethereum’s L1 gas limit, including increased hardware and bandwidth demands on full nodes. He argues the change is net positive, as technologies like zk proofs and statelessness enable powerful nodes to simplify verification for light clients. He proposed a three-tier node model consisting of light nodes for verification and data access, medium nodes for consensus and inclusion, and heavy nodes for zk proving and block building. The goal is to keep light nodes lightweight, medium nodes moderately accessible, and heavy nodes resource-intensive but decentralized.

During this week’s EF L2 Interop Working Group call, contributors shared progress on interoperable addresses through two proposed standards: ERC-7930, which defines a compact binary format for uniquely identifying addresses across chains, and ERC-7828, which builds on it with a human-readable format that integrates with naming systems like ENS for improved UX in wallets. Together, the ERCs aim to standardize how chain, address pairs are referenced, resolving cross-chain inconsistencies. Both ERCs are open now for community feedback ahead of a planned finalization on May 9th.

The Pectra hard fork has successfully activated on Gnosis Chain, bringing account abstraction, improved validator experience, and blob scaling to the Ethereum sister chain. The upgrade also enables Type 4 transactions from EIP-7702, allowing EOAs to temporarily adopt smart contract behavior by setting custom code. Gnosis founder Martin Koeppelmann demonstrated the feature by sending xDAI to two addresses in a single transaction. Pectra is scheduled to activate on Ethereum mainnet on Wednesday, May 7, 2025.

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• SoP: alignment protocols

• Tunnl launches on Base

• Protocol Berg v2

• Lens invests in SocialFi fund

• MOVE dump scandal

• 3 billion USDT0 bridged

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• Base reaches Stage 1 decentralization.

• RISC Zero launches a zk-coprocessor.

• BlackRock seeks to tokenize its Treasury Fund.

• Kraken supports deposits on Unichain

Base reached Stage 1 decentralization, a milestone facilitated by the launch of Fault Proofs and a 10-member Security Council responsible for governing contract upgrades. The activation of Fault Proofs enables permissionless validation. Base contract upgrades now require 75% approval from the Security Council. In Stage 1, rollups are equipped with functional proof schemes and a multi-sig override mechanism, such as the Security Council. The next milestone, Stage 2, will introduce a multi-proof system. As outlined by Vitalik, Stage 2 is the final step in rollup decentralization, where the Security Council cannot change the chain's state root.

RISC Zero launched Steel 2.0, a zk-coprocessor for the EVM that enables expressive, low-cost, multi-block logic. Steel 2.0 is designed to overcome Ethereum smart contracts limitations, including the block gas limit and the inability to access historical state, compute across multiple blocks, or react to events without relying on indexers. By offloading computation offchain, Steel allows developers to process complex logic, aggregate data across time, and act on verified event data. Developers can use Steel to build event-powered logic, query historical state from any post-Dencun block, and perform multi-block computation—all while still writing contracts in Solidity. Steel 2.0 also supports cross-chain applications on Ethereum and OP Stack chains.

BlackRock filed Form N-1A with the SEC seeking to tokenize its $150 billion Treasury Trust Fund by issuing digital DLT shares exclusively through the Bank of New York Mellon. The BlackRock Treasury Trust Fund primarily invests in short-term U.S. Treasury securities and is designed for institutional investors. The tokenized shares aim to provide an onchain record of ownership for investors.

Centralized exchange Kraken now supports deposits and withdrawals on Uniswap’s Unichain, an OP Stack-based Layer 2 network. Supported tokens include Kraken’s composable Bitcoin asset kBTC, Tether’s cross-chain native USDT0, and ETH. Users can buy BTC on Kraken and withdraw it as kBTC directly to Unichain, similar to how Kraken integrates with its Ink L2 chain.

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• Ledger integrates stablecoin yields

• Ethereum Checkpoint #2

• 2025 Ethereum events list

• Eigen Grants Oversight Council

Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.