Networks & Protocols

This week, Optimism successfully upgraded the Goerli Testnet to Bedrock – a pivotal step in their overall network upgrade plan. Bedrock is expected to bring a number of enhancements to the design, such as quicker deposits, lower gas fees, predictable block production, and Ethereum Equivalence. The Mainnet upgrade to Bedrock is scheduled for February.

Polygon announced a hardfork (V0.3.1) with the intention of reducing the magnitude of gas cost spikes and chain reorganizations (reorgs) to aid with faster finality. This proposed hardfork is due to take effect on the Mainnet on 17 January 2023.

Consensys announced the launch of MetaMask Staking via liquid staking providers Lido and Rocket Pool. In other news, Consensys opened its zkEVM Private Beta version for selected users.

Ethereum developers released devnet2, ahead of Shanghai shadow fork. Link.

In this paper, Seun Lanlege discussed the necessary data types & algorithms needed to run the Ethereum Beacon Chain light client as a 02-client IBC module. According to the researcher, this technical specification could allow IBC-enabled chains to communicate trustlessly with the Ethereum Beacon Chain.

Tom Gur et al. published a fascinating research paper – Streaming Zero-Knowledge Proofs – which results from four years of research. The paper proposed the construction of general-purpose zero-knowledge proofs (leaking no information other than the correctness of the statement) for massive data streams.

MEV Boost

As of this week, Flashbots dominance has come down to 71% among the ten players in the Relay market. Flashbots Research held an MEV Roast on privacy this week.

CeFi

Coinbase announced that it was letting go of about 950 staff in its effort to reduce operating expenses.

Robinhood decided to end support for Bitcoin SV (BSV) on 25 January 2023.

Venture Activity

This week has shown an increase in venture activity, albeit with capital raised of only $70.48 million for the month to date – a much lower figure than what was seen in 2022.

This week saw a total of 11 transactions take place, ranging from various funding rounds.

This week saw a shift in focus towards DeFi projects, with no activity registered in the GameFi and Infrastructure areas.

Regulatory

This week, the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) submitted a request for default judgment in the complaint they filed against Ooki DAO in September 2022. CFTC also brought market manipulation charges against the Mango Markets exploiter Avraham Eisenberg.

House of Lords members called for stronger crypto regulation. The UK government will publish a report on the issue in the coming weeks. Link.