1. Kosmos Ventures established a new blockchain investment fund, Zero Age Ventures, and has received $10 million in funding from GP
The team behind Australian venture capital fund Kosmos Ventures announced the launch of a new investment fund, Zero Age Ventures, focusing on blockchain technology. Kosmos Fund II will be transferred to Zero Age Ventures, and all new investments will be managed by Zero Age Ventures. After the successful completion of the initial transaction, General Partners pledged up to $10 million of its own capital, and Zero Age Ventures will allocate a large amount of funds in 2023 and 2024. It is reported that Kosmos was originally founded in 2017 and has made a large number of seed round investments in protocols such as Solana, Algorand, Polkadot and Fantom. Zero Age Ventures will focus on guiding network effects through token/product design, governance, community building and listing strategies.
2. BNB Chain is expected to carry out the “Luban” hard fork upgrade on June 12
According to CoinDesk, BNB Chain is expected to undergo a network upgrade at block height 29,020,050, which is expected to arrive at 05:30 Beijing time on June 12. The Luban hard fork contains three different Binance Smart Chain (BSC) Evolution Proposals (BEPs): BEP-126, BEP-174, and BEP-221, which share the common goal of building a faster and more secure network for users. Validators and full node operators on the mainnet should upgrade their software version to v1.2.4 by June 12, 2023. BEP-126 introduces the "Fast Finality" mechanism, which makes it impossible for a block to be reversed once it is finalized on the network. BEP-174 proposes "Cross-chain Relay Management" which aims to mitigate any potential security issues in the BSC bridge. BEP-221 proposes the "CometBFT Light Block Validation" system, which proposes to add new contracts to blockchains using CometBFT technology.
3.SignalPlus: Fed Governor Waller further fuels the inflation fire
Fed Governor Waller (who has voting rights) further added fuel to the inflation fire, saying he was concerned about the lack of progress in inflation and that he "does not support stopping raising interest rates unless there is clear evidence that inflation is declining toward the 2% goal." Furthermore, even in the case of "skipping a rate hike" in June, "prudent risk management would recommend skipping a rate hike at the June meeting, but may favor a July rate hike based on upcoming inflation data." ".
4. The Circom verification library discovered the vulnerability CVE-2023-33252, reminding zk project parties to pay attention to related risks
Circom is a zero-knowledge proof circuit compiler developed based on Rust. The team also developed the SnarkJS library to implement the proof system, including trusted settings, generation and verification of zero-knowledge proofs, etc., supporting Groth16, PLONK, and FFLONK algorithms. Previously, Beosin security researchers discovered a serious vulnerability in the SnarkJS 0.6.11 and earlier versions of the library. When the library did not perform a complete legitimacy check on the parameters when verifying the proof, attackers could forge multiple proofs to pass the verification and implement a double-spending attack. After Beosin mentioned this vulnerability, it contacted the project party as soon as possible and assisted in the repair. The vulnerability has been repaired. Beosin reminds all zk projects that use the SnarkJS library to update SnarkJS to version 0.7.0! To ensure security. At the same time, in response to this vulnerability, the Beosin security team reminds zk project parties that when performing proof verification, they should fully consider the security risks caused by the code language properties in the actual implementation of the algorithm design. At present, Beosin has submitted the vulnerability to the CVE vulnerability disclosure platform (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) and obtained recognition.
5. WOOFi launches cross-chain staking powered by Arbitrum and LayerZero
According to the official blog, WOOFi Stake 2.0 improves the model by integrating with LayerZero's cross-chain messaging technology. Users can now stake WOO on two new supported chains, including Ethereum and Optimism, but the rewards will be merged and available on Arbitrum, simplifying the multi-chain user experience. WOO tokens can now be staked across seven chains to earn USDC on Arbitrum through WOOFi swap fees.
6. Uniswap community launches temperature check vote on proposal to deploy V3 to Fantom
The Snapshot voting page shows that the Uniswap community is conducting a temperature check vote on the proposal to "deploy Uniswap V3 to Fantom", with a current support rate of 100%, and the voting will end on May 31. The proposal aims to deploy Uniswap on the Fantom chain using the cross-chain interoperability protocol Axelar. This strategic move will take advantage of current market opportunities and strengthen Uniswap's position in the DeFi field. After the on-chain voting is completed, Axelar will be responsible for the deployment of Uniswap V3 smart contracts on Fantom, while Uniswap Labs will be responsible for front-end integration. This is estimated to take about 4-6 weeks of review time.
7. PancakeSwap's proposal to "provide additional features with VIP pools for Cake tokens" has been voted through
The Snapshot voting page shows that the proposal of PancakeSwap, a decentralized trading platform, to "provide additional features with VIP pools for Cake tokens" was passed with 99.6% support. The proposal aims to provide another use for Cake tokens, making them more attractive by creating exclusive products. The proposal proposes to create sCake tokens to give users special staking rights, which are similar to IF0 in function. In order to participate in IF0, users need to stake Cake in the pool, and the amount and staking time determine the amount of sCake that can be submitted to the VIP pool. This feature will increase the demand for Cake, promote more staking for Cake, and make the project more exclusive.
8. Tornado Cash supporters submit 4 key arguments in lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department
According to a tweet by Paul Grewal, Coinbase's chief legal officer, the six defendants who are trying to overturn the U.S. Treasury's sanctions on Tornado Cash have filed a reply brief with the court in support of their motion for summary judgment filed in early April. The plaintiffs made four arguments, but all point to one problem, that the government is trying to ban the use of open source software through property sanctions. Because this is not the intention of the law, they can't make the law fit this case. Here are the four arguments: 1. These sanctions depend on the assumption that anyone who happens to hold a digital token (TORN) is a member of the legally recognized entity "Tornado Cash"; this is novel as a legal theory, but wrong as a factual issue. 2. The law states that sanctions can only block property; the legal definition of property is something that can be owned, but no one can own, control, or change the open source, immutable smart contracts at the core of this privacy software. 3. No one has a property interest in these immutable smart contracts, including founders, developers, and TORN holders. 4. Sanctioning Tornado Cash violates the First Amendment, and the government can't simply tell law-abiding Americans to exercise their freedom elsewhere.
9. Magic Eden launches NFT trading aggregator on Solana, and will soon open source market contracts and open APIs
According to the official Twitter, NFT market Magic Eden launched an NFT trading aggregator on Solana, aggregating lists of various key Solana NFT platforms. In addition, Magic Eden will open source market contracts and open APIs in the next few days and provide users with a -0.25% MAKER fee promotion.
10. Offchain Labs has written a fraud proof program for the programming environment Stylus
According to the official Twitter, Arbitrum development team Offchain Labs announced that it has written a complete and effective fraud proof program for the next-generation programming environment Stylus. It is reported that Stylus allows users to deploy contracts written in the programming language of their choice (including Rust, C, C++, etc.). The team uses Nitro to enhance the security of Stylus contracts in WASM and expand EVM+ support. Stylus is expected to be audited this year and ready for production.
11.a16z Crypto releases open source on-chain privacy voting system Cicada
According to the official blog, a16z Crypto announced the release of Cicada, an on-chain privacy voting system. This is a new open source Solidity library that uses time-lock puzzles and zero-knowledge proofs to achieve on-chain privacy voting, guaranteeing minimal trust assumptions, and can be used on the Ethereum mainnet. Cicada formal proofs are also coming soon.
12. Mastercard executives: If blockchain technology solves security and interoperability issues, it will bring more value to the financial industry
According to CryptoSlate, Raj Dhamod, Executive Vice President and Head of Crypto and Blockchain at Mastercard, said that the company firmly believes that once cryptocurrency and blockchain technology can solve key issues such as security and interoperability, it can bring more value to the financial industry. Dhamodharan said that cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are gaining increasing attention worldwide, but their use cases are currently limited due to the lack of comprehensive security and complex user interactions; once these issues are resolved, brands and companies will have more confidence to participate in the Web3 industry; most people see cryptocurrency as an investment opportunity, but "the technology itself has a lot of promise", not just a good way to transfer and store capital.
13. Media startup Semafor has raised $19 million to acquire SBF's entire investment in it
According to Reuters, media startup Semafor announced that it has raised $19 million from investors such as Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and KKR & Co co-founder Henry Kravis to acquire former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)'s investment in the company. After the bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November last year, Semafor was charged with fraud and has been seeking to acquire SBF's investment for months. It is reported that Semafor was founded by former Bloomberg CEO Justin Smith and NIUYUE Times media columnist Ben Smith and went online in October last year. So far, it has raised $34 million.
14. Blur launches ETH loan batch repayment function
NFT marketplace Blur announced a new feature on Twitter where users can now borrow ETH and repay the loan in installments over a period of time, rather than all at once. This applies to NFTs purchased using buy now pay later (BNPL) and NFTs borrowed directly. If the loan is called, users can extend the loan by paying a fee as low as 0.1 ETH, rather than repaying the full amount immediately. This can also be used to refinance the loan to get a better interest rate.
15.Blend will support Otherdeeds and BAKC NFT series
According to official Twitter, Blur's NFT lending protocol Blend will add support for Otherdeeds and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) NFT series. Blend has previously announced support for NFT series including CryptoPunks, Azuki, Milady Maker, DeGods, BAYC, MAYC, Kanpai Pandas, Redacted Remilio Babies and Pudgy Penguins.
16.Multichain: Some cross-chain routes are unavailable due to force majeure, and the time for resuming service is unknown. Compensation will be provided to affected users
Multichain tweeted that although most of the cross-chain routes of the Multichain protocol are running normally, some cross-chain routes are unavailable due to force majeure, and the time for restoring services is unknown. After the service is restored, pending transactions will be automatically credited. Multichain will compensate users affected in this process, and the compensation plan will be announced later. According to previous reports from multiple community users, there are abnormal delays in the arrival of cross-chain funds in Multichain. CoinGeck market shows that Multichain token MULTI has fallen 24.1% in the past 24 hours and is currently trading at $5.36.