Matrixport View_Technology #15

Matrixport Research

Summary

Bitcoin developers are planning for a soft fork on the work to integrate privacy features and scaling abilities on the blockchain. The soft fork plans to integrate Schnorr cryptographic signatures, allowing the network to create a master key and summarize a set of signatures into one. The new implementation was passed as 95% of the miners update their nodes with the proposed compatibility and locking it in for launch in November 2021.
ETH 2.0 plans for its first hard fork “Altair”. The hard fork plans to increase the penalty for inactive validators and those that showed malicious behavior. The planned hard fork is slated to be launched at the same time as the “London” hard fork on ETH 1.0 in July/August.
There are ongoing security breaches occurring across the blockchain ecosystem.

Public Blockchain: Mainstream Tokens

“Taproot” Soft Fork Update is Scheduled for Implementation

Soft Fork Agreement ☆☆

In early May, Taproot, a Bitcoin soft fork, proposed to integrate Schnorr cryptographic signatures, an alternative signature method to the ECDSA that is currently implemented, allowing the network to create a master key and summarize a set of signatures into one
The new implementation if passed will open the door for various methods of identity obfuscation by hiding the number of participants involved in a Bitcoin transaction and lighten the load on the network by reducing the transaction space by at least 20%
To implement the network, miners must update their nodes with this compatibility and signal their approval, and should more than 90% of the mining blocks signal their approval within the next 2016 blocks (14 days’ time frame, ending around mid-May), the soft fork will be implemented in November 2021
As of end May, around 95% of the nodes have upgraded their compatibility, signaling their support for the proposed update, allowing the update to be locked in for launch.

Ethereum 2.0 Plans its First Hard Fork, “Altair”

Hard Fork Proposal ☆☆

In concurrence with the upcoming “London” hard fork on ETH 1.0, ETH 2.0’s first hard fork Altair, is scheduled to release in July or August 2021
The Altair upgrade plans to increase the responsibilities of validators by increasing the penalty for inactiveness and malicious behavior, bringing the level of penalty closer to the original one set out at the start of the ETH 2.0 protocol
Altair is considered a “warm-up upgrade” to prepare ETH 2.0 protocol developers for future more important updates that will be upcoming later in the year as ETH blockchain fully transitions to a PoS protocol

dApp and Layer 2 Updates

Update for Ethereum Scaling Project - Hermez Network

Progress Update ☆

Hermez Network, one of the most promising Ethereum scaling project has provided its latest updated roadmap as it seeks to improve the scalability of the Ethereum network
So far, it has completed its decentralized protocol for L2 token transfer and will start on the network promotion and smart transactions support later in 2021
In addition, the network is also looking to extend its ecosystem of partners, increase support for new financial infrastructure and increase functionality in its next version with increased privacy and composability

Security Incidents

DeFi

Hackers exploited a flaw in the smart contract that governs the Spartan Protocol, a DeFi token on the Binance Smart Chain, with USS$30m being drained from its system. ☆
Rari Capital, a Web3 DeFi tool that focus on wealth management, was exploited and 2,600 ETH (worth $10m) was drained from the protocol. Management is trying to recover the funds and will attempt to compensate the victims. ☆
DeFi protocol xToken suffered an exploit, with two of its tokens being targeted, resulting in US$24.5m being stolen. Attackers employed flash loans to steal tokens and sold most of the stolen tokens for ETH. ☆
bEarn Fi, a cross-chain auto yield farming protocol on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), was exploited resulting in a loss of almost US$11m. ☆
FinNexus, a decentralized options platform, was hacked with US$7.6m drained from the platform. While the platform claims it was a smart contract hack, other industry experts have refuted the claim, suggesting it was a stolen private key for the adminstrator account ☆
Bogged Finance, a DeFi protocol on the BSC, was exploited by a flash loan attack resulting in a loss of US$3m. The protocol’s BOG token plunged 98% in response to the attack. ☆
Another DeFi protocol project on BSC suffered a flash loan attack. Burgerswap, a DEX and liquidity provider, lost US$7m as hackers created their own fake token to form a new trading pair with BURGER. The team has promised to cover the losses; however, they will require some time before doing so.

*Blockchain

The vaults.sx contract on EOS mainnet was exploited by a re-entrancy attack resulting in 1,180,142 EOS and 461,796 USDT (worth around US$14m) being stolen, making this the biggest hack on EOS. ☆☆

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

Sources: Bitcoin.com, Coindesk, CoinTribune, CryptoSlate, Medium, Yahoo Finance, analyze by Matrixport

Disclaimer

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