• Snapshot introduces Boost rewards.

• Fraxtal’s native bridge goes live.

• Fluidkey introduces the Stealth Account Kit.

• Astar Network launches the Astar zkEVM.

Snapshot, an offchain governance voting platform, introduced Boost, a new feature that allows DAOs to incentivize voting participation by rewarding voters with ERC-20 tokens. The feature allows DAOs to select a token and amount for the voter rewards, choose between lottery or proportional distribution mechanisms, and define eligibility parameters. DAOs can also customize winning prababliities and set caps for an upper limit for large token holders. Boost is currently available in a private beta release for select DAOs. Snapshot hopes that the new feature will help address voter apathy in cases where only a small subset of token holders vote on DAO proposals.

The Fraxtal native bridge is now live on mainnet, enabling deposits of ETH, CRV, sfxETH, and various tokens from the Frax ecosystem directly to Fraxtal. As a Layer 2 network built on the OP Stack, Fraxtal introduces a novel incentive mechanism called Flox, rewarding users and developers with FXTL points based on their gas spend. Frax Finance is also offering FXTL point rewards for FXS stakers. Fraxtal is also part of Optimism’s Superchain collective, supporting shared upgrades and a commitment to public goods funding. Frax Ether (frxETH) serves as the rollup’s native gas token. Fraxtal currently holds just over $1 million in frxETH deposits.

Transaction privacy tooling provider Fluidkey introduced the Stealth Account Kit, an open-source TypeScript library that offers the essential cryptographic functions for generating and recovering Fluidkey stealth accounts. The release aims to promote the development of privacy-focused applications. The library is influenced by Umbra.js, viem, and Safe. The library's functionalities cover generating private keypairs from signatures, extracting and generating private viewing keys, creating stealth addresses, and predicting stealth Safe addresses. Fluidkey automatically directs payments sent to a private ENS to a new address that only the user can control. Users can currently sign up for a waitlist to use the privacy tool.

Astar Network launched its Astar zkEVM on mainnet, built on the Polygon CDK and integrated with the AggLayer. The implementation enables Astar to access unified liquidity across ZK-powered chains on Polygon through a single bridge. The rollup was built in collaboration with automation infrastructure provider Gelato Network.

• Zerion supports Zora Network

• Fluent integrates with Celestia

• EtherFi final countdown

• Reminder to update node software

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• SEC delays Ethereum ETF.

• Optimism 4844 savings estimator.

• Paradigm writes on raising the gas limit.

• EtherFi partners with Omni Network

ETH is up 4.5% over the last 24 hours, currently trading at $3,624 at the time of writing.

The SEC postponed its decision on BlackRock's application for a Spot Ethereum ETF. BlackRock filed a Form S-1 with the SEC last November for its proposed iShares Ethereum Trust. The Ethereum ETF would be traded on the Nasdaq once approved. The ETF provides investors Ethereum exposure without owning ETH directly. BlackRock intends to hold actual ETH, which will be held by the Coinbase Custody Trust Company. The SEC has up to 240 days to make a decision on the application. VanEck is one of the first asset managers to apply for an Ethereum ETF. May 23rd marks the final deadline for the SEC to make a decision on VanEck’s Ethereum ETF.

OP Labs introduced the Superchain Savings Estimator, a tool designed to compare transaction fees on OP Stack chains before and after the activation of the Dencun upgrade. Engineers at OP Labs anticipate a significant reduction in transaction fees to cents across all OP Stack chains once blob transactions are integrated. The tool allows users to input any transaction hash to simulate cost savings. Executing a swap on Uniswap on Base currently incurs a cost of about 60 cents, a figure expected to plummet to less than a cent. EIP-4844 blob transactions are slated to go live on Ethereum mainnet on March 13th, with support on the OP Stack coming the following day on March 14th. Users can access the tool at welovetheblobs.xyz.

Paradigm released a research article about increasing Ethereum's block gas limit. The article explores the concept of state growth within Ethereum and its correlation with the gas limit. It distinguishes between state growth, history growth, state access, and the gas limit, each presenting distinctive scalability challenges. The document highlights Ethereum's scaling bottlenecks, hardware constraints, and gas limits, impacting various aspects such as network bandwidth, storage capacity, memory, and IO operations. Proposed solutions to address state growth include rollups, Verkle tries, and state expiry. The article advocates for an empirical approach for increasing Ethereum's gas limit.

EtherFi, the largest LRT protocol with close to $2 billion in TVL, partnered with rollup interoperability protocol Omni Network. EtherFi committed to delegating $600 million worth of ETH to economically secure Omni Network by running as an Actively Validated Service (AVS) on EigenLayer and selecting EtherFi node operators. EtherFi’s eETH is also now supported on the Zircuit LRT restaking protocol.

• UF issues first grant of the year

• Onboard sUSDe to Aave

• TLX council voting

• Alien CryptoPunk sells for 4,500 ETH

• World App crosses 50m txs

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• Goerli deprecation by April 17th.

• Gitcoin 2.0 whitepaper.

• Gnosis Chain reaches 200k validators.

• Lens Protocol reaches 200k profiles.

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In accordance with the Ethereum testnet lifecycle, the Goerli testnet will be deprecated by April 17th. Ethereum core developers had previously agreed to deactivate Goerli testnet validators either three months after the Dencun activation on Goerli or one month after Dencun activates on mainnet. Given that Dencun was activated on Goerli on January 17th, the three-month mark is on April 17th. Developers currently using the Goerli testnet are advised to transition their applications to Sepolia or Holesky testnets before Goerli's deprecation on April 17th. A new Ethereum testnet is rolled out every two years, with a maximum lifespan of five years for each testnet. Optimism will decommission the OP Goerli testnet on March 7th.  The Goerli testnet was initially deployed in 2019.

Gitcoin unveiled its whitepaper for Gitcoin 2.0, the next iteration of its protocol that introduces new capital allocation mechanisms and extends support to more EVM-based chains. Gitcoin 2.0 shifts operations onchain, including governance, grant creation, management, and fund disbursement. It also introduces Direct Grants and Retro PGF as funding mechanisms Gitcoin 2.0 takes a modular approach to capital allocation, powered by the Grants Stack. The framework empowers communities to design custom mechanisms for fund distribution within their ecosystems. The whitepaper for Gitcoin 2.0 is now open for community feedback, prior to being ratified by Gitcoin Governance.

Gnosis Chain reached 200,000 validators on its PoS network, making the second-largest chain in terms of validator count, second only to Ethereum. Gnosis Chain, previously known as xDAI, is an EVM-compatible sidechain that uses DAI as its native gas token. xDAI was acquired by the Gnosis ecosystem in 2021. The sidechain shares the same architecture as Ethereum and is committed to Ethereum's values of decentralization, neutrality, and diversity. Gnosis Chain makes home-based validation more accessible by only requiring a single GNO token to become a network validator.

Lens Protocol achieved 200k minted profiles on its open social-graph network. The accomplishment follows a surge of over 60,000 new profiles since the protocol went permissionless earlier this week. The permissionless launch enables anyone to mint a Lens Profile for 8 MATIC. Profile NFTs are built on the ERC-6551 standard, enabling content to be owned by the Profile NFT. Lens Protocol has been live on Polygon since February 2022.

• Nethermind v1.26.0-exp.3 release

• Coinbase smart wallet demo

• RetroPGF3 learnings

• ePBS and ETs discussions

• Caldera Contributor Program

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