“Since Bitcoin doesn’t have the DeFi infrastructure that allows Ethereum token holders to lend their assets and receive passive yields, it appears that Bitcoin holders are turning to wrapped BTC tokens in order to use their assets in the rapidly growing DeFi market.
The amount of WBTC tokens increased more than sixfold over the past month – there are currently around 8,200 BTC converted into Ethereum tokens, worth roughly $74.9 million.
Launched in mid-May, renBTC has already taken second place among tokenized Bitcoin projects.”
See Also: Andreas Antonopoulos: Use DeFi Contracts for BTC Passive Income
“Researchers have found a vulnerability in the Bitcoin Lightning Network that could enable an attacker to drain funds from wallets.
The attacker forces many victims at once to flood the blockchain with claims for their funds. He is then able to leverage the congestion that they create to steal any funds that were not claimed before the deadline.
We believe that in many ways the exploited vulnerabilities are inherent to the way [Lightning works], and thus the attack cannot be avoided completely without major modifications.”
“EIP 1559 aims to reduce transaction costs by overhauling the network’s fee market in what independent analyst Hasu describes as ‘the biggest change to any blockchain post-release.’
Notably, EIP 1559 forces Ethereum transactions to be paid in the blockchain’s native token. The base fee is denominated in ETH, paid to the network and then burnt every time a transaction occurs, which also decreases the outstanding supply of ether over the long run.
Consequently, the burning also provides a new deflationary pressure into Etheruem’s economic model, a pressure some argue would give the network a higher value proposition in the long term.
The burning of BASEFEE, which is the bulk of transaction fee, is a deflationary force of ETH. It promotes its scarcity, and links its scarcity to the growth of the Ethereum economy.
As of June 24, developers have decided to launch a testnet to help model the effects of EIP 1559. Ethereum clients are already working on implementations.”
“The Katalyst upgrade will bring in a new mechanism enabling KNC holders to stake the token and be rewarded for voting participation in ether (ETH) collected in the form of network fees resulting from trading activity.
KyberDAO, a platform that will allow the different stakeholders to participate in governance through voting, will be hosted on Kyber.org. Users of the network will gain access to the new Katalyst features a week after launch, on July 14.
KNC holders who do not wish to participate in governance are still able to earn rewards by delegating their voting power to KyberDAO pool operators.”
See Also: Matic Network Aims for 80% Token Lockup in New Staking Program
“Balancer CTO Mike McDonald said the attacker had borrowed $23 million worth of WETH tokens, an ether-backed token suitable for DeFi trading, in a flash loan from dYdX. They then traded, against themselves, with Statera (STA), an investment token that uses a transfer fee model and burns 1% of its value every time it’s traded.
The attacker went between WETH and STA 24 times, draining the STA liquidity pool until the balance was next to nothing. As well as WETH, the attacker performed the same attack using WBTC, LINK and SNX, all against Statera tokens.
Balancer Pool will now begin blacklisting all transfer fee tokens.”
See Also: Hacker Steals Balancer’s COMP Allowance in Second Attack Within 24 Hours
“What differentiates MCDEX is that it is the first of its kind to introduce an Automated Market Maker to provide on-chain liquidity to its perpetual contracts.
Competitors such as dYdX still rely on off-chain funding rates, and therefore are less decentralized.
Like many things in DeFi, you can think of MCDEX’s AMM as a kind of money Lego block. It provides basic composability and allows smart contracts to trade, arbitrage, and speculate (up to 10x) with MCDEX’s on-chain perpetual contracts.”
“Zimbabwe has suspended mobile money payments and the national stock exchange in a dramatic escalation of the nation’s currency crisis. Millions rely on mobile payments because of the difficulty in accessing hard cash.
African crypto news outlet Bitcoinke claims ‘the demand for Bitcoin has skyrocketed‘ in the wake of the suspension—its sources claim the cryptocurrency is selling at 18% above the market rate.
Ecocash is commonly used to buy Bitcoin [and] has promised to defy the ban. Meanwhile, inflation has risen above 750%, and the local stock market has surged, as investors have sought safe havens.”
“The CCC aims to bring developers together to accelerate the use of Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technologies and standards. A TEE sequesters code and data away from applications on the main operating system, so they’re protected from adversaries who may gain access to the main operating system.
This enables applications and other systems to run without having direct access to extensive amounts of vulnerable data such as financial or personally identifiable information. Blockchain technology offers a coordination mechanism for computers using TEEs, allowing access to data among parties that might not trust one another.
Confidential computing brings privacy-preserving smart devices to the next level by not only allowing users to own their private data, but also to use it in a privacy-preserving way.
This has major implications for consumer-facing industries such as health care and smart homes.
With confidential computing, facial recognition processes can be executed within a secure TEE-based confidential computing environment, where the raw data (people’s faces) and a cross-referencing database of faces can be analyzed and subsequently forgotten.”
“The roughly $14 million deal with Chinese metals giant Baoshan Iron & Steel Co Ltd. (Baosteel) was conducted on a platform created by Canada-based startup MineHub Technologies.
The MineHub platform was used to process contract terms, exchange documents online and provide visibility and accountability along the supply chain.
The bulk commodity industry needs a digital revolution to reduce physical documentation processes.”
“Counter-Strike superstars with two million fans will participate in a crypto-powered tournament, while fans will be able to bet on the outcome with crypto tokens.
The tournament is sponsored by Verasity — an attention based platform for video, gaming and entertainment rewards with a native VRA token. Verasity has signed a long-term deal with the players agents.”
“The Bitfury-powered blockchain for the Russian constitutional amendments was reportedly attacked over the weekend. Experts were working to restore access to the attacked node.
Moreover, the blockchain-based online voting has produced some abnormal results in certain regions. For instance, nearly 7,300 people assigned to a polling station in Troitsky Administrative Okrug were registered to vote online, despite the station only having a total of 2,358 residents eligible to vote.
Further, some people have reported successfully managing to vote multiple times.”
The Disrupt 