This Week in Crypto #19
It’s been an interesting week for the world of Crypto and Web3. We’ve got some developments going on in the protocol level, as well as developments on a wider spectrum. This week also includes a major email leak from leading NFT marketplace OpenSea.
We’ve also seen Solana introduce their plans for a Web3 cell phone, the relaunch of the Ronin Network, The Sandbox deploying onto the Polygon Network, and so much more.
Let’s jump in!
Solana Phone
Solana is one of the biggest Blockchains around today, and is well known for its high throughput and rapid transaction speeds. The team behind the creation of the Solana blockchain, Solana Labs, recently unveiled the future plans to dwell into the world of hardware. We’re talking about Solana Mobile, aka “Saga”, a flagship-quality Android phone
The team at Solana Labs say they have been working on the project for approximately one year, and it all began when they started to reimagine what mobile phones might look like in the age of Web3.
But what is hardware without software! This is where Solana Mobile Stack (SMS) comes in.
Developers will be able to use SMS, an SDK that comes with all the tools needed (including a hardware-encoded Seed Vault) to develop and publish their mobile dApps, and in turn distribute them through a specialised storefront.
If you want to get your hands on a Saga, pre-orders are already open.
Saga is set to ship with Solana Mobile Stack by Q1 2023.
Klaytn x OpenSea
Klaytn, the Singapore-based public blockchain is partnering with leading Ethereum NFT marketplace OpenSea, in a bid to accelerate adoption of the Asian NFT ecosystem, and promote Asian NFT projects to the global audience.
OpenSea, currently supports the Klaytn, Ethereum, Polygon and Solana blockchains.
Klaytn partners with OpenSea to invest in Asian NFT ecosystemhttps://t.co/9ggU0SfAp5#blockchain #Metaverse #NFTCommunity #NFTs #Opensea
— The NFT Rebel (@thenftrebel) June 30, 2022
Arbitrum vs Optimism
Delphi Digital recently released a report showing the differences between the Arbitrum and Optimism L2 Ethereum scaling solution protocols. The analysis shows that the start of Arbitrum Odyssey pushed Arbitrum ahead of Optimism in daily transactions, but that the two are still competing head to head in the race to become the leading Optimistc rollup solution for Ethereum.
Last Cardano Node
Every Cardano and ADA supporter is waiting for the blockchain’s biggest upcoming event! The Vasil Hardfork!
Over the weekend, IOHK announced that they had successfully tagged and released Cardano node 1.35.0 which is the final candidate for the mainnet Vasil release.
The tweet is sure to have created a surge of excitement for any enthusiasts of the Cardano blockchain.
Celsius Network
After recently trying hard to avoid bankruptcy, things are still not looking too good for Celsius at the moment. As of right now, Celsius Network withdrawals, swaps, and transfers have been paused for over 19 days due to “extreme market conditions.”
And now, latest reports show that FTX walked away from a potential deal with Celsius Network, after conducting some research into Celsius’ financial state. According to reports, Celsius had a $2 billion hole in its balance sheet.
OpenSea Leak
This was quite a big story from this week. One of the biggest data leaks in Web3 history.
We are referring to the OpenSea email leak which was caused when an employee of OpenSea’s email vendor “Customer.io” downloaded and shared the email addresses of all users with an external party.
On their blog, the company said customers should assume they have been impacted by the news if they had shared their email address with OpenSea in the past. They also mentioned that they are aiding “Customer.io” with their own internal investigation, and that the leak had been effectively reported to the authorities.
The result of the leak will almost definitely be many email phishing scams making their way into all OpenSea users’ inboxes. So if you are one, be extremely careful and vigilant.
OpenSea have released an “Important Update on Email Vendor Security Incident” which you can check out here.
Ronin Bridge Re Opens
For all you Axie Infinity lovers out there, we thought we would mention the re opening of the Ronin Bridge.
As mentioned on their blog post “After three audits, the Ronin Bridge is officially open and ready for use. This means that users can now easily make deposits and withdrawals to and from the Ronin (RON) network.”
The key points they made on the blog were that:
- All user funds are fully backed 1:1 by the new bridge. All users have been made whole.
- We’ve successfully conducted an internal audit and two external audits (Verichains, Certik).
- We are on track to release Land Staking this week.
- The new bridge design includes a circuit-breaker system as a contingency plan which increases the security of the bridge by halting large suspicious withdrawals.
Read the full blog post here.
The Ronin Bridge is open!
• All user funds are fully backed 1:1 by the new bridge.
• The bridge has undergone an internal audit and two external audits.
• We are still on track to release Land Staking this week.— Axie Infinity | #AxieOrigins, #AxieHomeland (@AxieInfinity) June 28, 2022
Polygon LAND
The Sandbox is deploying to Polygon, bringing SAND and LAND with it. In its blog post, The Sandbox mentioned how it had reached a key milestone in its 2022 roadmap with the successful migration of its smart contract on Polygon Layer 2.
In their blog, they mention some of their major reasons behind the move, which include bridging LAND and SAND tokens to Polygon in order to develop a cheaper and overall greener ecosystem with more features.
Read the full blog post here.
🌉 We are ready to deploy LAND to @0xPolygon 🌉
🔸Each LAND bridged grants a 10 mSAND cashback!
🔸LAND multipliers on both mSAND staking programs are back!
🔸LAND sales and LAND staking features (on Polygon) are coming soon!BRIDGE NOW ➡️ https://t.co/jlcSKxuBWh pic.twitter.com/1tuAAsqEZP
— The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) June 28, 2022
Morocco Bill
Another country looking to regulate crypto. Upon hearing the word “regulation”, many feel a sense of fear. But the reality is that with regulation, comes investor clarity. And so, regulations, if done right, by people who understand the many pieces of the puzzle that is Web3, will help further the adoption of crypto and Web3.
JUST IN: Central bank of Morocco to introduce a bill regulating #Bitcoin and crypto 🇲🇦
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 28, 2022
Anonymous
After recently issuing a warning to the worlds richest man, Elon Musk, decentralised hacker group Anonymous have now issued a message to the creator of the recently collapsed UST stablecoin, and founder of LUNA and LUNA2, Do Kwon.
The group have been known to issue warnings to people that have conducted various actions of misjustice. In this instance, the collapse of UST and what was known as “LUNA” (now “LUNA Classic”), caused many investors to lose tons of money, potentially even some people to lose their entire life savings.
The truth however is that it’s sometimes hard to know which Anonymous videos are real, and which ones are simply fake and been created by pranksters. And at the end of the day, even if they are real, no one really knows just how successful the hacker group would be at achieving their goals.
🚨Anonymous send message to $LUNA founder Do Kwon🚨 pic.twitter.com/kbr3grQKRs
— Crypto Crib (@Crypto_Crib_) June 27, 2022
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