Scroll, Polygon, And zkSync Release zkEVMs
Three ZK Rollup initiatives are in competition to become the first ZK-EVM deployed on mainnet.
Polygon announces its EVM-Equivalent zkEVM.
Scroll reveals its zkEVM testnet release.
zkSync plans to launch to mainnet in 100 days.
Minecraft bans NFTs from its platform.
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Matter Labs announced plans to release zkSync 2.0 to mainnet within the next 100 days. zkSync 2.0 is an upgrade to the network that includes a zkEVM compatible zk-Rollup. The upgrade also includes support for Vyper and Solidity. EVM compatibility allows Ethereum developers to port their existing dapps to zkSync with minimal code changes. Matter Labs also revealed it will now adopt a public roadmap, laying out sequential milestones for the following months. In Fall, Matter Labs will release ZK proofs for EVM smart contracts in a live production environment. Projects will be able to deploy on zkSync 2.0 mainnet as part of a fair launch in Q4 with a public alpha release planned for EOY 2022.
Polygon unveiled the open-source release of Polygon zkEVM, an EVM-equivalent zk-Rollup. Polygon zkEVM is a separate L2 chain focused on processing low-cost and high throughput transactions while inheriting the security guarantees of Ethereum. EVM-equivalence allows developers to deploy existing smart contracts on Polygon zkEVM without code adjustments. Polygon zkEVM leverages the use of plonky2 recursive SNARKs. The announcement comes amid zkEVM announcements from zkSync and Scroll in a race for the first mainnet release of an EVM compatible zk-Rollup. Polygon will release a testnet this summer with a mainnet launch expected in early 2023.
Scroll, a zk-Rollup L2 scaling solution, announced the pre-alpha release of its testnet. Scroll will also be zkevm-equivalent and will have solidity byte-code level compatibility. This means developers can port their Ethereum applications to Scroll without needing to use a transpiler. This initial release will be run on a private PoA fork of Ethereum and a Scroll L2 testnet running on it. The testnet is open for community feedback on a capacity-limited basis. Users will be able to test applications including a fork of Uniswap. There will also be a smart contract bridge for bridging assets. After this testing phase, Scroll will allow developers to deploy smart contracts in a public alpha testnet release.
Minecraft announced a ban on NFTs and NFT integration within their game. Minecraft updated its usage guidelines citing that “NFTs can create models of scarcity and exclusion that conflict with Guidelines and the spirit of Minecraft.” NFTs will not be permitted in Minecraft in-game content such as worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods. The public statement from Minecraft showed a lack of understanding in the space, describing NFTs as a “non-editable digital token” that is “often purchased with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.” The announcement sent Web3 gaming project NFT Worlds into a downward spiral, with its native $WRLD token plummeting more than 70%.
The 10th Ethereum Mainnet Shadow Fork is scheduled for July 27th at around 2:00 PM UTC. Ethereum underwent its 9th shadow fork on July 14th. There will be a few more shadow forks happening in the coming months as the merge approaches. Shadow forks are used for testing different merge scenarios, such as a block reorg.
Goerli Testnet Merge Set For August 10th
Goerli is expected to hit the difficulty bomb on August 10th
The Goerli testnet is set to merge on August 10th.
Uniswap to surpass Coinbase in daily volume.
MetaMask Institutional releases its Q2 report.
Across Protocol launches bridge to earn.
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The Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD), also known as the difficulty bomb, has been set for the Ethereum Goerli Testnet Merge at 10,790,000. Goerli is expected to hit the TTD value on August 10th. The Bellatrix upgrade for Goerli is scheduled for August 4th. Bellatrix is the first part of a two-phase process for the merge. Once the Goerli/Prater testnets have successfully merged, Ethereum Mainnet will undergo the transition as planned in early September. Goerli will still undergo a 5th shadow fork planned for Thursday, July 21st at 2 PM UTC. A shadow fork is when the state of an existing network is mirrored onto a merged PoS network in order to test different merge scenarios.
MetaMask is working on updating its UI verbiage for setApprovalForAll transactions. The setApprovalForAll transaction gives smart contracts the ability to withdraw tokens from a wallet. Users who unknowingly sign a setApprovalForAll transaction on a malicious website give the attacker the ability to withdraw their assets. Most recently, Premint suffered a phishing attack on their website with victims signing a malicious setApprovalForAll transaction, resulting in the loss of their NFTs. The new verbiage on MetaMask lets users know they are “giving access to all” tokens when approving a setApprovalForAll transaction. The same verbiage will apply for revoking token approvals.
According to data from Kaiko Research, Uniswap is close to surpassing Coinbase in daily trading volume. Over the last 7 months, Uniswap’s market share of volume relative to Coinbase has grown from 27% to nearly 50%. This means Uniswap is now processing as much volume as Coinbase daily. DEX volume is still a small fraction of global crypto trading, accounting for just 8% of trading volume compared to Coinbase, FTX, and Binance. Uniswap V3 holds a leading position in DEX market share, processing more than 80% of volume across DEXs. Part of Uniswap’s increase in volume can be attributed to the rise of stablecoins and wrapped crypto assets.
MetaMask Institutional released its Q2 2022 report overviewing features implemented on its institution-compliant version of MetaMask. During Q2, MetaMask Institutional released two custodian integrations, an NFT Tracking View, and tracking features including Transaction Notes and Portfolio Snapshots. The new integrations focused on improving the NFT experience, providing investors with a dashboard for viewing all NFT holdings. Updates include portfolio filters at the account and protocol level. MetaMask Institutional supports multi-signature transaction approvals and an interactive portfolio dashboard.
Across Protocol announced the first phase of its token launch as a “bridge to earn” referral program. The program is focused on rewarding users who help grow the protocol’s usage by referring users. Users can generate their unique referral link and earn rewards in ACX tokens when someone uses their link to bridge. The token rewards will be given as a percentage of bridge fees from each referral. Across is estimating a price of $0.10 per ACX token, giving the token an estimated fully diluted market cap of $100 million. Users will be able to claim token rewards shortly after the launch of ACX in Q3 2022. Across is yet to release details of the final token distribution.
Coinbase Adds Support For ENS Domains
Coinbase users can claim an alice.cb.id domain as their web3 username.
Coinbase Wallet adds support for ENS subdomains.
Lido expands stETH to support more L2s.
EIP-4361 moves to a review phase.
Genesis Among Lenders Affected by 3AC
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Coinbase has added ENS support for Coinbase Wallet users. The exchange has opted to use its DNS domain “cb.id” instead of a “.eth” extension for the feature. Users can claim an alice.cb.id domain as their web3 username. The integration is built on ENS infrastructure using the DNS import feature. Coinbase decided not to use a “.eth” extension because some users may believe the domain only works for sending Ethereum. Users who already own an ENS domain can decide if they want to use their domain or the cb.id subdomain as their primary username. Coinbase also plans to offer subdomains ending in .eth at a later date. The move comes amid increasing volume in ENS activity, with over 122k domains registered in June. Samsung.eth was purchased last week for 60 ETH. Amazon.eth currently holds a bid of $1 million USDC, making it the second largest domain sale should it be sold. The ENS token is up 13.6% over the last 24 hours.
Lido Finance is expanding its liquid staking stETH token across L2 chains. Lido has already integrated wstETH within the Argent wallet for zkSync users. stETH is also integrated into Aztec Network through its zk.money application. Arbitrum and Optimism are among the next set of L2s that Lido will support. Initially, users will be able to bridge wstETH between Ethereum and L2 networks. wstETH is the wrapped, non-rebasing version of stETH. Lido then plans to enable ETH staking deposits directly on L2 in order to take advantage of low-cost transactions. Lido has been live on Ethereum since the launch of the Beacon Chain in December 2020.
Sign-In with Ethereum EIP-4361 has moved from being a draft to being in a review phase. Sign-In with Ethereum is an authentication method that enables users to control their digital identity with their Ethereum account and ENS profile. The integration allows users to sign into a dapp by signing a message with their Ethereum wallet. Review is the third phase in the EIP process. Once the EIP is peer-reviewed, it will move to the Last Call phase, which is the final review window for an EIP before it moves to become a Final standard. Sign-in with Ethereum will mark a significant milestone as it hopes to become the web3 standard for logins.
Crypto payments platform Genesis Asia Pacific Pte Ltd is among the latest companies affected by the 3AC collapse, having lent the hedge fund $2.3 billion. The details were revealed in a new legal document published by Teneo, the firm appointed to oversee 3AC's liquidation. The loans were undercollateralized with an average weighted margin call of about 80%. Genesis liquidated GBTC and AVAX collateral when 3AC failed to meet the margin call. 3AC still owes Genesis an estimated $462 million. Genesis is owned by Digital Currency Group, which has assumed certain Genesis liabilities to ensure ongoing operations for the company.
Ethereum Community Conference 5 (ethCC) kicks off in Paris this week. The three-day event will take place from July 19th-21st featuring participation from DeFi Saver, POAP, StarkWare, and Lens Protocol among others. Polygon has teased they will make a special announcement while at the event. ethCC is the largest annual European Ethereum event focused on technology.