Weekly project updates: BNBChain proposes lower fees, Sei Foundation, etc

1. ETH’s weekly summary

a. Ethereum Foundation announces Shapella network upgrade activation date link

On March 28, the Ethereum Foundation officially released an announcement: The Shapella network upgrade will activate on the Ethereum network at epoch 194048, scheduled for 22:27:35 UTC on Apr. 12, 2023.

b. Ethereum developer: Testing of Shapella upgrade is entering its final stages link

Ethereum Developer Conference: Testing of Shapella upgrade is entering its final stages, with a last mainnet shadow fork scheduled next week and cross-client EVM fuzzing of the latest releases. The EVM Object Format (EOF) has been updated, but developers are skeptical whether it can be released in conjunction with the EIP-4844 in Cancun, or put into the next fork.

c. MakerDAO community approves governance reforms with 76% support link

On March 28, the MakerDAO community approved 14 governance proposals with a 76% majority vote. The proposals include changes to the MakerDAO charter, the Endgame MIP, and removal processes. The specific contents of the proposals include the Maker Constitution written by founder Rune Christensen, etc.

d. Lido to stop supporting Polkadot and Kusama staking protocols from Aug 1 link

As of August 1, 2023, Lido will no longer develop and technically support the Lido on Polkadot and Kusama liquid staking protocols, because data related to adoption and growth did not meet business case expectations to sustain investment.

2. Layer 2’s weekly summary

a. Coinbase’s L2 blockchain Base announces focus areas for ecosystem fund link

On March 26, Coinbase’s L2 blockchain, Base, announced that its ecosystem fund will focus on several key areas, including flatcoins (which maintain a stable value against a basket of currencies rather than a single currency, such as Reflexer/RAI, Spot/Ampleforth, Frax/FPIS, Olympus DAO), onchain reputation, protecting user privacy and autonomy, onchain limit order book exchange, and safer DeFi tools such as self-service security testing tools and on-chain insurance.

b. Orbiter Finance denies rumors of token sale or listing on exchanges link

On March 28, the L2 cross-rollup bridge Orbiter Finance issued a statement saying that it has not conducted any public fundraising activities, nor has it announced any plans to sell or list tokens on exchanges. The rumors circulating in the market regarding such activities are not related to Orbiter Finance.

c. Starknet alpha v0.11.0 has launched on the mainnet link

On March 28, Starknet announced that due to a majority vote in favor, Starknet alpha v0.11.0 will be launched on the mainnet this week, and users are reminded to upgrade their Starknet wallet accounts as soon as possible to avoid property losses. On March 30th, Starknet alpha v0.11.0 was launched on the mainnet. Starknet emphasized that Cairo 1.0 contracts can only be deployed on the mainnet after running on the testnet for some time.

d. Aave V3 MVP proposal for deployment on ZkEVM mainnet receives overwhelming support in preliminary polls link

On March 31, the Aave community conducted a preliminary poll on the deployment of the MVP version of Aave V3 on the zkEVM mainnet, which received almost unanimous support and will now move to an official on-chain vote. The proposal suggests including only three collateral types (WETH, WMATIC, and USDC) and one borrow asset (USDC) to reduce risk exposure, with the aim of establishing Aave’s strategic position on L2 networks as soon as possible.

e. zkSync Era appears to cease operations link

At 10:26 on April 1st, according to the zkSync Era block explorer, zkSync Era appeared to have stopped working, with the latest transaction recorded 3 hours ago. Official administrators in the community have indicated that the team is aware of the issue with zkSync Era’s mainnet. Users are advised to refrain from initiating transactions for the time being and to wait for the mainnet to be restored. Funds are safe, and users are encouraged to wait for the team to fix the issue.

3. Polygon’s weekly summary

a. Polygon gas price soars to 1,000 gwei amidst Lens Protocol activity surge link

On March 27, according to Nansen data, the median Polygon gas price surged to 1,000 gwei during the evening of March 26 to the early morning of March 27, with the network traffic spike mainly attributed to Lens Protocol-related contracts. According to @0xRustamov data dashboard, on March 26, the sum of Lens Protocol user comments, retweets, and posts reached a new daily high.

b. y00ts announces migration to Polygon network with rewards for users link

On March 27, the blue-chip NFT project y00ts on Solana announced on Twitter that it will be migrating to the Polygon network. Users will receive migration rewards within the first 24 hours. During this period, both gas fees and staking for migration will be completely free. Additionally, for every y00t NFT sold on MagicEden, a reward of 5 USDC will be given, and no transaction fees will be charged for the first 30 days. Furthermore, the y00ts team has stated that they will airdrop BTC DeGod to y00t holders on Polygon within the first 24 hours as an airdrop reward.

c. Polygon announced the launch of its zkEVM mainnet test version link

On March 27, Polygon announced the launch of its zkEVM mainnet test version, with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin conducting the symbolic first transaction. Polygon also stated that to make the network resistant to censorship, users will eventually be able to force transactions to Ethereum L1 in the event of a failure, a mechanism that will be briefly enabled after its launch.

d. Polygon zkEVM has seen over $880k in cross-chain transaction volume within 24 hours of its launch link

On March 28th, according to data from Dune Analytics, since the launch of Polygon zkEVM for nearly 24 hours, over 2,500 users have completed more than 2,700 cross-chain transactions worth $880,000. Due to the lack of expected airdrop incentives, compared to the launch day of zkSync Era, the performance of Polygon zkEVM is slightly underwhelming.

4. BNB Chain’s weekly summary

a. LaunchZone’s Bscex SwapX contract on BNB chain hacked, $7.8M stolen link

On March 27, according to Scam Sniffer, there was a vulnerability in the early contract of Bscex SwapX, a project of LaunchZone on BNB Chain, and nearly $7.8 million was stolen, putting 34,065 addresses at risk. Founder of SlowMist tweeted that “Who could have thought that a project that was authorized 2–3 years ago would have a vulnerability. Many users have not revoked their authorization, and hackers continue to monitor these exposed wallet addresses. Once they find funds, they steal them.”

b. BNBChain proposes lower transaction fees to improve competitiveness link

On March 29, BNBChain launched a proposal for adopting a lower transaction fee cost on BNBChain to enhance competitiveness with other L2, which will enable users to choose fees below the current 5 gwei rate, with options to go as low as 3 or 4 gwei.

5. OKX announces development roadmap for OKB Chain (OKBC) link

On March 27, OKEx announced the development roadmap for OKB Chain (OKBC), which will transition from a sidechain to a Layer 2 network, while the Layer 1 public chain OKT Chain (OKTC) will also be developed in parallel. OKBC will be released in three versions, with V1 being an Ethereum PoA sidechain that focuses on providing high performance and low transaction costs, compatible with both EVM and Wasm ecosystems. V2 will upgrade to an Ethereum-native ZK Rollup platform, providing a Turing-complete ZKVM. V3 will connect cross-chain communication between ZK Rollups and propose specialized application solutions based on the V2 platform.

6. Due to potential vulnerability reports, THORChain has halted operations globally link

On March 28, THORChain: There are claims of a potential vulnerability with a THORChain dependency that may affect THORChain. Out of an abundance of caution, steps have been taken to halt THORChain globally. THORChain is a settlement layer that facilitates swaps between 8 chains.

7. Sui’s weekly summary

a. The cost of Sui held by B-round investors is approximately 0.28–0.31 USD link

According to court documents, FTX invested $102 million in the B-round of Mysten Labs and obtained about 890 million Sui Tokens. The average cost was very low, $0.114; Alameda and FTX Trading received almost 519 million Sui Tokens for free and used for market making on the FTX. The cost of other B-round investors is about US$0.28–0.31. By Sui world.

b. Sui announces launch of Permanent Testnet link

On March 30, Sui’s Permanent Testnet has arrived. This instance of the Sui network serves as Sui’s long-running, decentralized, and permissionless Testnet. Unlike past Testnet Waves 1 and 2, this new Testnet will continue running even after Mainnet launch. Previously, Sui stated that the mainnet would launch in the second quarter of this year, but there are currently no official plans for an airdrop.

8. Layer1 blockchain Sei announced the establishment of Sei Foundation link

On March 29, the Sei Foundation was announced and will be responsible for Token Grants, Airdrops, Requests for product, Initiatives and Delegation programs. Sei is a Multicoin-invested L1 blockchain that will launch its mainnet in the next few months.

9. NFT’s weekly summary

a. Blur delays launch of new product, doubles bid and list points for Q2 link

On March 29, Blur announced that the launch of their new product, originally planned for April 1st, would be delayed due to the team needing more time to develop it. As consolation, bidding and listing points for Season 2 will remain doubled until May 1.

b. Magic Eden to launch NFT marketplace beta on Ethereum link

The NFT market Magic Eden is set to launch its NFT marketplace beta on Ethereum on April 6. Magic Eden was originally native to the Solana blockchain. It had previously launched NFT marketplaces on Polygon and the Bitcoin blockchain.

c. Amazon NFT marketplace could feature Beeple, Pudgy Penguins link

Amazon is putting the finishing touches to its in-house NFT initiative, according to sources directly familiar with the matter. And at least one document suggests that Amazon is set to feature digital collectibles from top crypto-native creators including Beeple and Pudgy Penguins. The Amazon NFT marketplace will run on a private and permissioned blockchain controlled by the e-commerce giant.

10. dYdX’s weekly summary

a. dYdX announced that its private testnet will start on March 28 link

On March 27, dYdX announced that its Cosmos-based private testnet will start on March 28, 2023 and last for 2–3 weeks. The public testnet is expected to be launched by the end of July 2023, and the mainnet will be available by the end of September 2023.

b. dYdX vows to address potential MEV issues in v4 application chain link

On March 30, dYdX announced that it will address potential MEV issues on its dYdX v4 application chain. According to the post, the decentralized, high-performance memory order book of the dYdX v4 application chain could lead to MEV value capture issues. However, unlike a general smart contract environment, the Cosmos infrastructure allows dYdX to build a unique MEV solution, coordinating incentives between validators and users. dYdX believes that MEV behavior is harmful to the protocol and community and is actively committed to researching and building relevant solutions, planning to allocate significant resources for this purpose.