Weekly Project Updates: Tornado Cash's Malicious Governance Controversy, etc

1. ETH’s Weekly Summary

a. Summary of the 162nd Ethereum All Core Developers Meeting (ACDE) link

On May 26th, according to Christine Kim’s summary of the 162nd Ethereum All Core Developers Meeting (ACDE), the meeting primarily focused on the impact of two EIP proposals related to the removal of “Self-Destruct,” the progress of EIP-4844, and the potential inclusion of EIPs in the Cancun upgrade. Regarding the removal of “Self-Destruct,” there are currently two proposals, EIP-4758 and EIP-6780. The impact analysis report suggests that EIP-6780 may be preferable as it has the least impact on existing applications. The progress of EIP-4844 was discussed, including technical details and preparations for the sixth testnet related to this proposal. Lastly, Time Beiko recommended that the scope of EIPs considered for inclusion in the Cancun upgrade in the next meeting be limited to EIP 5920, 5656, 7069, 4788, and 2530.

b. Vitalik’s New Article: Don’t Overload Ethereum’s Consensus link

On May 21st, Vitalik published a new article titled “Don’t Overload Ethereum’s Consensus.” The article discusses the risks associated with adopting consensus mechanisms in the Ethereum network. It highlights the systemic risks that arise from the need for participants to reach consensus, and the potential issues such as forks, double-spending, and security vulnerabilities if consensus is compromised. Additionally, introducing real-world information can enhance the functionality and applicability of smart contracts, but it also brings challenges such as information uncertainty, data source credibility, and tampering concerns. The article emphasizes the importance of maintaining the “purity” of blockchain and calls for careful scrutiny and regulation of Ethereum’s consensus mechanisms to ensure the security and reliable operation of the Ethereum network. Vitalik criticizes various protocols, including EigenLayer, that employ techniques like Re-staking and propose using L1 soft forks to recover L2 failures. He believes that while these technologies may have good intentions, certain subsets of them pose high systemic risks to the ecosystem and should be prevented and resisted.

c. Ethereum Client Prysm Releases v4.0.5 Version link

On May 23rd, Ethereum’s main client Prysm released version v4.0.5, which includes several significant improvements and bug fixes since v4.0.4, including important enhancements to “attestation aggregation.” Earlier, clients like Prysm and Teku were unable to achieve finality due to high loads, prompting urgent optimizations and the release of v4.0.4.

2. Malicious Governance Controversy Surrounding Tornado Cash

a. Tornado Cash Targeted by Malicious Governance Proposal Attack link

According to @samczsun on May 20, 15:25:11 (UTC+8), Tornado Cash has fallen victim to a malicious governance proposal attack. The attacker manipulated the proposal logic by adding additional functionality to gain fraudulent votes, granting themselves 1.2 million votes, which exceeded legitimate votes by approximately 70,000. This allowed the attacker to gain control over governance. With governance control, the attacker can withdraw votes, drain tokens from the governance contract, disable routers, but cannot drain individual pools. Additionally, @CellierLael pointed out that the attacker can deplete all ETH from the Tornado Cash Nova pool by upgrading the contract.

On May 18, @spreekaway had previously alerted about a governance attack targeting TORN. They mentioned that someone had automatically created hundreds of contracts and performed zero TORN transfers before moving them to the governance treasury, which was considered highly suspicious.

b. Attacker Steals 483,000 TORN from Tornado Cash Governance Treasury link

On May 21st, according to monitoring by @EmberCN, the attacker of Tornado Cash obtained a total of 483,000 TORN from the Tornado Cash governance treasury. Currently, they have deposited 6,000 TORN into Bitrue. They sold 379,300 TORN on-chain in exchange for 375 ETH (approximately $680,000) at an average price of $1.8. There are still 97,700 TORN remaining to be sold or transferred.

c. Tornado Cash Attacker Submits Proposal to Revert the Attack link

On May 22nd, the attacker of Tornado Cash submitted a proposal to undo the attack and restore the DAO governance status. If the proposal is approved, the malicious code integrated into the protocol that allowed the attacker to steal others’ voting power will be removed, returning the governance control of Tornado Cash to token holders. Members of the TORN community have indicated that the attacker is “very likely” to execute the proposal as they are currently reducing their holdings of the attacked TORN tokens to zero. The proposal appears to be on track to pass when voting concludes on May 26th, but it is unclear when the execution will take place. (CoinDesk)

d. Proposal to Remove Malicious Code Integrated into Tornado Cash Protocol, Submitted by Attacker, Passes link

The proposal submitted by the attacker to remove the malicious code integrated into the Tornado Cash protocol has now been overwhelmingly passed, allowing community members to regain control. Within the week of having control, the hacker converted 470,000 TORN tokens into ETH, amounting to over $1.5 million, and used 572 ETH for money laundering through Tornado Cash. The reasons for the hacker returning governance control are still unclear. (Fortune)

3. MakerDAO Proposes Increasing DAI Savings Rate to 3.33% link

On May 27th, the core development team of MakerDAO proposed to increase the savings rate of DAI to 3.33%. According to MakerDAO, the DAI savings rate, also known as DSR, can be adjusted frequently to respond to short-term changes in the Dai market conditions. Previously, in February, MakerDAO announced that raising the DSR to 1% resulted in over 35 million DAI being deposited within a month. (The Block)

4. Coinbase Unveils Mainnet Roadmap for L2 Network Base link

On May 25th, Coinbase unveiled the mainnet roadmap for its L2 network, Base, and reiterated that they have no plans to issue a token. The Base testnet went live on February 23rd and has since undergone the Regolith hard fork and infrastructure review with the OP Labs team. The future plans include upgrading to Bedrock, conducting internal and external audits, and testing for stability.

5. Blur Announces Launch of ETH Loan Repayment in Installments Feature link

On May 25th, Blur announced the launch of a phased repayment feature for ETH loans. This feature is applicable to NFTs purchased using the “buy now, pay later” option and NFTs borrowed directly. When a loan is due, borrowers have the option to extend their loan by paying a minimum fee of 0.1 ETH instead of repaying the full amount immediately. This can be utilized to obtain better interest rates for refinancing the user’s loan.

6. Founder of Synthetix Discusses Future Potential Plans for Synthetix link

On May 24th, Kane Warwick, the founder of Synthetix, published an article discussing potential future plans for Synthetix. These plans include the Core Contributor Alliance, trading incentives, passive SNX staking, integration incentives, a 3:1 SNX split and buyback, distributing SNX to stakers, Treasury Committee (TC) funding working groups, the Synthetix Ecosystem Fund, subsidizing Keeper fees, the Perps referral program, Treasury Committee proposal templates, and splitting the Treasury Committee. However, it should be noted that these plans are still conceptual and have not yet received a vote from the Treasury Committee, although some of them have gained support from the committee. The integrated front-end of Synthetix Perps, Kwenta, reached a trading volume of $450 million on May 23rd, marking the second-highest level in its history.

7. Lybra Finance’s LBR and eUSD Experience Rapid On-Chain Data Growth link

On May 22nd, according to the @defi_mochi data dashboard, there has been rapid growth in on-chain data related to Lybra Finance, a liquidity staking protocol. The price of LBR, the native token of Lybra Finance, reached a new high, and the supply of eUSD (the stablecoin associated with Lybra Finance) has continued to increase, reaching around $30 million. The amount of stETH deposited has also been steadily climbing, surpassing $55 million. However, there have been criticisms from the community, comparing eUSD to DAI, stating that eUSD lacks use cases and scalability. CryptoDoctor, the founder of Degen Camp, summarized the community’s concerns, highlighting the lack of integration for eUSD and the inability of users to receive generated interest when eUSD is transferred, spent, or exchanged, resulting in a lack of capital efficiency. In the second and third quarters of this year (Q2/Q3), Lybra plans to achieve the following goals: increase collateral options, introduce Wrapped eUSD, establish a lending market for eUSD, implement a multi-chain strategy for eUSD and LBR, and improve the UI/UX experience.

8. Telegram Bot “Maestro” Captures $293,000 in Daily Fee Revenue for Shitcoin Hunting link

On May 25th, according to DeFiLlama data, Maestro, a Telegram bot specifically designed to capture “shitcoins,” generated a fee income of $293,000 in a single day on May 23rd. In May, it accumulated over $4.4 million in fee income, setting new all-time highs. Maestro supports Uniswap and PancakeSwap, and trades conducted through the Maestro Sniper Bot, whether manual or automatic, incur a 1% tax on each buy and sell transaction.

9. Stably Announces Launch of First BRC-20 Stablecoin #USD on Bitcoin link

On May 26th, Stably, a Web3 payment infrastructure provider, announced the launch of the first BRC-20 stablecoin, #USD, on the Bitcoin network. #USD is fully collateralized and can be redeemed on a 1:1 basis for US dollars held by Prime Trust, an FDIC-insured bank. The maximum supply of #USD is 69,420,000,000,000, and it is deployed on Inscription #8,727,192. Currently, Stably #USD has a minimum trading amount of $1,000 through USDC/USDT and a minimum trading amount of $25,000 through Fedwire/SWIFT transactions.

10. NFT’s Weekly Summary

a. Magic Eden Announces Launch of NFT Aggregator on Solana link

On May 25th, Magic Eden announced the launch of an NFT aggregator on Solana and introduced a promotional offer of a -0.25% maker fee for users. This means that when a user’s offer is accepted, they will receive a maker fee of -0.25% on their order.

b. Solana NFT Infrastructure Metaplex Releases Significant Update, Introducing Token Metadata Immutable Finality link link

On May 23rd, the Solana NFT ecosystem infrastructure, Metaplex, announced important updates: (1) Introduction of Terminal Immutability in Token Metadata: This means that no entity can upgrade or modify the program or the assets it manages. (2) Consensus with the Solana Foundation: Plans have been made to preserve certain key features of Token Metadata, including permissionless access to Token Metadata and equal treatment for all programs that interact with Token Metadata to create, update, transfer, destroy, list, buy, or sell NFTs. MPLX will not control the functionality of Token Metadata. (3) Introduction of Moderate Network Fees: The Solana Foundation has agreed to introduce moderate network fees for Token Metadata, ranging from 0.01 to 0.001 SOL.

The Metaplex protocol is widely used on Solana, with total downloads of the Metaplex program and SDK exceeding 200,000 just last week.

Solana officials have also stated that during the transition towards immutability, the control of Token Metadata will be handed over to multiple independent security firms. This will form a multisignature system to govern Token Metadata. Metaplex has committed to completing this transition within the next 18 months, ensuring that changes to Token Metadata will not occur before consensus is reached among the entities in the multisignature system. This decentralizes control over this critical infrastructure tool while undergoing comprehensive security audits.

c. 72,000 Nike .SWOOSH OF1 BOX NFTs Minted with a Total of 42,000 Minters link

As of May 27th, according to the @SeaLaunch_ data dashboard, since the start of regular sales for members on May 24th, there have been 72,000 Nike .SWOOSH OF1 BOX NFTs minted out of a maximum of 83,000. The number of unique minters reached 42,000, with each NFT priced at $19.82. This has generated over $1.4 million in profits for Nike thus far. Among the NFTs, New Wave accounts for 52.2% while Classic Remix holds 47.8% of the total. OF1 BOX is built on the Polygon network, and Nike plans to introduce a collectibles marketplace for the Nike .SWOOSH NFTs in the future.

d. Starbucks Odyssey Introduces Airdrop Promotion Terms and Conditions link

On May 26th, Starbucks Odyssey announced an airdrop promotion where eligible members can receive a limited edition stamp NFT. To qualify, members must meet the following criteria before June 6th at 14:59 Beijing time: (1) Complete at least two activities related to the Starbucks Odyssey journey. (2) Own at least one limited edition NFT stamp.

The airdropped NFTs will be deposited into the accounts between June 8th and 15th. Please note that this promotion is only applicable to Starbucks Rewards members and registered residents of the United States participating in the Starbucks Odyssey program.

e. Platinum Group, F1 Ticket Provider, Launches NFT Tickets for Global Motorsport Events link

On May 26th, Platinum Group, a major ticket issuer for Formula 1 (F1) races, launched NFT tickets based on the Polygon network for global motorsport events. The ticket NFTs, which made their debut at the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, offer buyers the opportunity to attend races and enjoy perks such as hospitality benefits and future race discounts, aiming to enhance buyer loyalty. The ticket-based NFTs provide transparency, traceability, seamless digital ticketing, personalization, and engagement for buyers. (CoinDesk)