Weekly project updates: Ideal case of ETH withdrawals, etc

1. ETH’s weekly summary

a. Ideal situation is to start ETH withdrawals next March link

The developers revealed that Shanghai currently is guaranteed to include the following EIPs: EIP-3651(Warm COINBASE), EIP-3855(PUSH0 instruction), EIP-3860(Limit and meter initcode), EIP-4895(Beacon chain push withdrawals as operations). The broadest commitment across teams is that withdrawals happening quickly, ideally around March, should be the priority. The list of those considered for inclusion includes: EIP-1153 (transient storage) EIP-2537 (BLS precompile) EIP-4844 (protodanksharding).

b. The Ethereum Foundation: the Ropsten network has been deprecated link

The Ethereum Foundation announced that the Ropsten network has been deprecated and will be shut down in the coming weeks. Over the past few months, infrastructure providers have gradually stopped supporting the network and validator participation rates have been steadily declining. The vast majority of remaining validator nodes will be shut down during the December 15–31, 2022 period. After this, Ropsten will no longer be supported by client, testing or infrastructure teams. The next testnet to be sunset is Rinkeby. The network will be live until mid-2023 to give users and application developers the chance to migrate to either Goerli or Sepolia.

2. Solana’s weekly summary

a. Serum, the main DeFi project on Solana, recommend using an alternative fork link

With the collapse of Alameda and FTX, the Serum program on mainnet became defunct. The project has forked Serum under the leadership of Mango Max, and users are advised to use an alternative fork such as Openbook due to the security risks of the old Serum code. In addition, the official said that the future of SRM Token is full of uncertainty.

b. Crypto wallet Phantom is expanding to Ethereum and Polygon link

Crypto wallet Phantom is expanding to the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. The crypto wallet is set to go live in beta within a few weeks, with a public launch to come shortly afterward.

c. Solana active developer count hits low since April of last year link

On Dec. 3, according to Token Terminal data, Solana transaction fees were $946.66k over the past 30 days due to the fall of FTX/Alameda core investors, with revenue paid to SOL pledgers at $473.33k, down 41.43% year-over-year. In addition, the number of Solana active developers has dropped significantly since February this year and is now at a new low since April last year.

3. Telegram’s weekly summary

a. Users of the Telegram app are now able to purchase and sell cryptocurrencies without leaving the application link

As a result of a recent upgrade to the wallet bot, users of the Telegram app are now able to purchase and sell cryptocurrencies without leaving the application. The wallet bot was developed by The Open Network (TON, formerly Telegram Open Network) in April. The wallet bot also serves as a fiat on-ramp, allowing users to buy TON using their credit cards within the Telegram app.

b. Telegram to build decentralized exchanges and non-custodial wallets link

Telegram CEO Durov said Fragment has been an amazing success, with 50 million USD worth of usernames sold there in less than a month. Therefore, Telegram’s next step is to build a set of decentralized tools, including non-custodial wallets and decentralized exchanges for millions of people to securely trade and store cryptocurrencies.

c. TON Steward looks to draw projects to its ecosystem with $126M rescue fund link

The stewards of the TON network have set up a “rescue fund” with a soft commitment of $126 million to support projects experiencing liquidity problems as a result of the FTX fallout. The TON Foundation’s aim is to entice projects to migrate to TON, while helping to alleviate the knock-on effects of the dramatic collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire earlier this month. The fund differs from Binance’s $2 billion recovery fund, which will be used to buy distressed assets.

4. Binance’s weekly summary

a. Binance Labs and BNB Chain launch season 6 of MVB accelerator program link

Binance Labs announced that applications for the 6th season of the BNB Chain’s Most Valuable Builder accelerator program are now open. The application window will be open from November 2022 to January 2023 and the program will begin in February 2023. “We provide integrated support on financing, go-to-market, security, and performance,” said Alvin Kan, Ecosystem Director at BNB Chain.

b. DWF Labs is allocating an initial $15m commitment to support distressed protocols through the IRF of Binance Labs link

c. Binance has appointed accounting giant Mazars to verify its token reserves link

Digital-asset exchange Binance Holdings Ltd. has appointed accounting giant Mazars to verify its token reserves. “The first verification update for BTC will be completed this week,” said the spokesperson.

d. Binance Labs invests up to $4.5M in Ambit Finance to boost DeFi on BNB Chain link

Binance Labs has made a strategic investment to commit up to $4.5 million to Ambit Finance, a DApp using novel structured financial products to enhance the utility of BUSD and other select crypto assets. Ambit and Binance Labs will partner to launch the DeFi app and work with projects in the BNB Chain ecosystem.

5. L2’s weekly summary

a. StarkWare has now open sourced Cairo 1.0 link

StarkWare has now open-sourced Cairo 1.0, an update to StarkNet’s current native smart contract language, Cairo, with a kernel similar to Rust and optimizations to improve the syntax experience, compiler, and provability of transaction calculations compared to the previous version. Cairo 1.0 is not yet supported by StarkNet and will have to wait until Q1 next year.

b. RNS.ID’s Digital ID is integrating with zkSync 2.0 link

zkSync announced that RNS.id, the world’s first sovereignty-backed digital ID, is integrating with zkSync for on-chain KYC. Their blockchain-native digital residency programme, backed by the Republic of Palau, aims to give users unprecedented access to economic freedom, and is the first digital Web3 identity platform developed to support the application and issuance of sovereignty-backed IDs.

c. BitDAO announces Mantle, a modular Ethereum layer-2 solution link

Bybit-backed BitDAO has announced the launch of Mantle, an Ethereum layer-2 network built with modular architecture that will serve as the core of BitDAO’s various programs and ecosystems, will use BIT as the native gas token, and claims to be the first network to adopt EIP-3074, extending contract functionality and meta-transactions to external accounts. The public test network is scheduled to go live in 2023 along with a full-scale incentive program.

d. Ethereum L2 network activity hits record high again in November link

On December 1, according to Dune Analytics data, activity on the Ethereum L2 network hit a record high in November, with 110,768,378,260 gas used to settle L2 transactions, an increase of about 44% year-over-year. Orbiter data shows that on November 8–9 and 19–22, the number of daily transactions on the L2 network exceeded that of the main Ethernet for the first time in history, with Arbitrum and Optimism being the biggest contributors.

6. NFT’s weekly summary

a. BNB Chain is officially live on OpenSea link

OpenSea announced that BNB Chain is officially live on OpenSea. Every NFT collection on BNB Chain with a transaction that took place after Jan 1, 2022 will be available on OpenSea. Also, OpenSea will continue to backfill historic data. Previously, OpenSea has supported Ether, Polygon, Solana, Klaytn, Arbitrum, and Optimism.

b. X2Y2 CEO reveals its future direction link

In the AMA held by X2Y2, X2Y2 CEO TP said, X2Y2 has almost confirmed the financing of ten million dollars; there are considerations to change the economic model of X2Y2, but the form and time of the change are uncertain; the direction is to become a platform to provide NFT derivatives; X2Y2 team has expanded by 50% this year, in which the development is 2–3 times stronger than at the beginning of the level; it is expected to complete the internal test of the aggregator at the end of December, and may go live in January; etc..

c. NFT aggregate exchange Blur announces second airdrop to start on December 5 link

Blur, the NFT aggregation trading marketplace, announced that it will open a second airdrop on December 5, 10 times larger than the first round, with all previous activity being counted.

d. NFT offers are officially live on the Immutable X protocol link

Offers are officially live on the Immutable X protocol, allowing NFT buyers to make an offer for an asset and sellers to agree upon a price proposed by a buyer. It is currently in beta testing and has some limitations and will be available in all markets on the ecosystem once the testing is complete.

e. Opera to add drag-and-drop NFT creation tool to browser in early 2023 link

Opera will roll out an NFT creation tool next January. Created by cloud-based ecosystems company Alteon and integrated into Opera’s crypto browser, the launchpad will give users an easy, no-code way to create NFTs and review simplified properties of their smart contracts.

f. Timex to create limited edition BAYC watches for 500 holders link

Timex will make 500 watches for Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders, decorated with their NFTs. It follows a similar project by Tiffany & Co. for CryptoPunk holders earlier this year. Pre-sales for the Timex pieces go live at an exclusive Art Basel event on Dec. 2. Two days later, Timepiece Forger Pass NFTs will be available online for 2 ETH (currently $2,575).

7. DEX’s weekly summary

a. The first draft of SushiSwap’s new tokenomics has been completed link

Jared Grey, the current Head Chef (CEO) of SushiSwap, tweeted that he and David Wilson have completed the first draft of SushiSwap’s new tokenomics and will be presenting it internally to the community for the first time next week. A public draft is expected to be released in 2–3 weeks.

b. NFTs are officially live on Uniswap link

NFTs are officially live on Uniswap, and the purchase screen shows that UniSwap may integrate with 7 NFT trading markets such as X2Y2, OpenSea, LooKsRare, etc. In addition, Uniswap Labs has announced that it will airdrop approximately $5M USDC to historical Genie users and offer gas rebates to the first 22,000 buyers.

c. Trader Joe to deploy onto Arbitrum One link

On December 2, Trader Joe, the largest native DEX on Avalanche, announced that it will be deployed on Arbitrum’s beta network in the coming days, with an expected launch on Arbitrum One in early January next year. This is the first deployment of Trader Joe on another chain, but it only includes Swap and Liquidity Book functionality; the native token JOE, lending, and more are not yet available on Arbitrum.

8. Sui Foundation announces SUI Delegation Program link

The Sui Foundation announces the SUI Delegation Program, which will enable community members seeking to run a validator to apply for delegated SUI tokens from the Sui Foundation to bootstrap their validator operations. The Sui Foundation will be the largest SUI token holder at Mainnet launch, and more details on token allocation will be released soon.

9. Aave decommissions low liquidity asset pools to protect against attacks link

Aave has frozen multiple low-liquidity asset pools in a bid to protect against attacks like the one targeting Aave’s CRV pool that caused the protocol to incur $1.6M worth of bad debt last week. On Nov. 23, a proposal was published to Aave’s governance forum advocating for freezing 17 v2 pools in the interests of caution due to their thin liquidity and the volatility of the underlying assets. The proposal attracted near-unanimous support. On Nov. 27, the changes were executed, halting Aave v2’s YFI, CRV, ZRX, MANA, 1INCH, BAT, sUSD, ENJ, GUSD, AMPL, RAI, USDP, LUSD, xSUSHI, DPI, renFIL, and MKR pools.

10. MakerDAO will boost DAI savings rate to 1% link

On November 28, MakerDAO held a vote on increasing the DAI savings rate (DSR), with the deadline for voting set for December 2 at 00:00. The results showed that 71.24% (55,279 MKR) of the votes cast were for “increase the DSR to 1%”. This savings rate is the rate agreed to be paid to DAI pledgees.