Matrixport View_Technology #8

Matrixport Research

Summary

  • The first phase of ETH 2.0 looks to reach fruition with the deposit contract accruing over 540k ETH, thus setting the stage for the launch of the beacon chain on 1st December. The beacon chain activation is the first of four phases of ETH 2.0 migration.

  • Bitcoin Cash completed its anticipated hard fork on 15th November. The hard fork came as the two major node developer teams, Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN) and Bitcoin ABC, disagreed on the infrastructure proposals going forward. Most developers have supported BCHN and the chain has been recognized as the official chain for BCH.

  • As part of Arbitrum Rollup testnet launch, Offchain Labs introduced Arbiswap, the Uniswap v2 on the testnet. The new testnet allows users to utilize Uniswap v2’s full suite of functionality while increasing the scalability and efficiency of the product.

  • There have been on-going security breaches occurring across blockchains and DeFi protocols.

Public Blockchain: Mainstream Tokens

Launch of Deposit Contract and Beacon Chain for ETH 2.0

Beacon Chain Launch ☆☆☆

  • On 4th Nov 2020, ETH 2.0 deposit contract went live, heralding the imminent unveiling of the revamped blockchain

  • The deposit contract acts as a bridge between the forthcoming proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain and the current proof-of-work (PoW) mainchain

  • In order to become an Ethereum 2.0 validator, a user must stake a minimum of 32 ETH through the deposit contract

  • The interest in the deposit contract was high and it was able to accrue more than 540k ETH by 23rd Nov, ensuring the beacon chain for ETH 2.0 will be deployed on 1st Dec 2020

  • The launch of ETH 2.0 will activate a parallel proof-of-stake blockchain dubbed “the beacon chain” to run in parallel alongside the existing Ethereum network

  • The beacon chain activation is the first of four phases of ETH 2.0 migration, which begins with the onboarding of validators and eventually leads to the full transition of all users and dApps to the new network

Anticipated Bitcoin Cash Fork is Completed

Hard Fork ☆☆☆

  • The half-yearly Bitcoin Cash update was completed on 15th Nov, as Bitcoin Cash changed to a new Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA) called ‘aserti3-2d‘ (or ‘ASERT’ for short)

  • The fork came as the two main Bitcoin Cash node teams, Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN) and Bitcoin ABC, differed in opinion regarding the latest update

  • Bitcoin ABC wanted to implement an Infrastructure Funding Plan (IFP) while BCHN opposed to the plan, resulting in a split and two differing chains

  • Every full node client, apart from Bitcoin ABC, supported BCHN’s proposal, resulting in BCHN’s chain being the longest and recognized as the official chain for BCH

dApp and Layer 2 Updates

Uniswap v2 is Live on Arbitrum Rollup’s Testnet

Testnet Launch ☆☆

  • As part of its new testnet launch, Offchain Labs launched Arbiswap, the Uniswap v2 running on Arbitrum Rollup’s testnet

  • The new testnet features Optimistic Rollup that allows users to instantly deploy Layer 2 contracts and increases the scalability of dApps on the network

  • Using the respective Layer 1 network as a comparison, swapping tokens on Uniswap on Ethereum will cost 109,500 gas at 7 Uniswap-swaps per second, while swapping tokens on Arbiswap will cost 1,965 gas at 390 swaps per second, a 55x gain in gas efficiency for the base layer

  • Offchain Labs took the entire Uniswap codebase and ported it wholesale to Arbitrum, resulting in a complete and fully functional Uniswap v2

Blockchain Adoption in Traditional Industries

Financial Industry

  • French financial firms BNP Paribas, CA CIB and Caisse des Dépôts, announced the launch of a project exploring a digital interbank currency (DIBC). The project has chosen Ethereum and Tezos blockchain technologies to explore how financial transactions involving digital assets can be settled on platforms. (Digital Currency; Project launch ☆)

Government

  • The Associated Press published the 2020 US presidential election results on the Ethereum blockchain. This marks the first time the blockchain is being used to maintain records of unfolding events and could bode well for future usage (Proof of Concept ☆)

Security Incidents

DeFi

  • Developers of Sharktron DeFi on TRON blockchain have executed an exit scam with close to $10m worth of TRX tokens being stolen. Part of the stolen funds have been frozen on Binance and TRON is working with affected victims to retrieve their funds. ☆☆

  • DeFi protocol Value suffered a flash loan attack resulting in $6m worth of losses. This is part of a series of flash loan attacks that have plaqued the DeFi sector. ☆

  • DeFi protocol Pickle Finance was hacked, with hackers draining $19.7m worth of DAI from a Pickle wallet. The team is currently working with a group of “white hat hackers” to fix the identified problem. ☆

  • Ethereum-based stablecoin OUSD was hacked through a flash loan and lost funds around $7m. The company has put out a bounty of $1m on the hackers, rewarding anyone who is able to retrieve the customer funds. The company has informed users to stop buying and selling OUSD. ☆☆

  • A liquidator on Compound made $4m worth of profits as the price oracle based on Uniswap and Coinbase’s prices reported an inflated DAI price during the market crash on 26 Nov. ☆

Blockchain

  • TRON blockchain suffered an attack for a malicious contract activation during an upgrade. All data and users’ funds are safe and were not affected by the attack. ☆

  • A Chinese developer, Aaron Zhou, has claimed that he was robbed of 600 BSV while using the multisig accumulator feature in ElectrumSV 1.3.7. The multisig program had a bug in its locking script resulting in an unknown hacker taking advantage of the loophole. Aaron had contacted Roger Taylor, the author of ElectrumSV, which has confirmed the existence of the bug. ☆

Importance level：low-☆; medium-☆☆; high-☆☆☆

Sources: AMBCrypto, Bitcoin.com, Coindesk, CryptoNews, Decrypt, Thedailychain, Trustnodes, analyzed by Matrixport

Disclaimer

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