Optimism
Total crypto market cap closes in on $1T right as Bitcoin price moves toward $20K
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization reached its highest level in over two months on Jan. 13 after breaking above the $900 billion mark on Jan. 12. While the 15.5% year-to-date gain sounds promising, the level is still 50% below the $1.88 trillion crypto market cap seen before the Terra-Luna ecosystem collapsed in April 2022. Crypto markets total capitalization, USD. Source: TradingView “Hopeful skepticism” is probably the best description of most investors’ sentiment at the moment, especially after the recent struggles of recapturing a $1 trillion market capitalization in early November. That rally to $1 trillion was followed by a 27.6% correction in three days and it invalidated any bullish momentum that traders might have expected. Bitcoin (BTC) has gained 15.7% year-to-...
Optimism and Arbitrum flip Ethereum in combined transaction volume
Ethereum layer-2 on-chain activity has been increasing to the extent that the leading two networks now process more transaction volume than mainnet Ethereum. Layer-2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism have seen an increase in transactions over the past three months. Comparatively, aside from a few spikes, transactions on the Ethereum network have declined by around 33% since late October, according to Etherscan. This has enabled the two L2s combined to flip Ethereum for this metric, according to Dune Analytics data. The chart shows Ethereum processed over 1.06 million transactions on Jan. 10, whereas Arbitrum and Optimism combined processed over 1.12 million transactions. Additionally, Optimism has now surpassed Arbitrum in terms of daily transactions following a steady uptrend in activity sin...
Crypto stablecoin issuer Circle adds Apple Pay support
Circle, the issuer of the United States dollar-pegged stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), has added support for Apple Pay — with the intention of bringing the crypto and traditional payment systems closer together. Circle made the announcement in a Nov. 15 blog post suggesting it may boost sales for crypto-native businesses as they can facilitate traditional payments from non-crypto-using customers while enabling customers to “buy crypto with Apple Pay on their preferred exchange.” According to Circle, the addition of Apple Pay support will benefit traditional businesses by allowing them “to shift more retail payments to digital currency.” Apple Pay is available to “eligible businesses” and claims enabling it is “a simple process”, meanwhile customers who checkout with Apple Pay at par...
Aave devs look set to receive $16.3M via retroactive funding
The DAO behind the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave has accepted a proposal to reward members from Aave Companies with $16.28 million in retroactive funding for their role in the development of Aave Protocol V3. Voting for the proposal began on Sept. 6, and at the time of writing has already passed 667,000 votes in favor of the funding, more than doubling the 320,000 required. The vote is set to end on Sept. 8. According to the initial proposal, which was first pitched on Aug. 10, the Aave Request for Comment (ARC) seeked “retroactive funding” for work in developing the V3 protocol. The $16.28 million consists of $15 million for work performed by the developers over the course of more than one year and $1.28 million for costs paid to third-party auditors. The money will be given ...
Total value locked in DeFi dropped by 66%, but multiple metrics reflect steady growth
The aggregate total value locked (TVL) in the crypto market measures the amount of funds deposited in smart contracts and this figure declined from $160 billion in mid-April to the current $70 billion, which is the lowest level since March 2021. While this 66% contraction is worrying, a great deal of data suggests that the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector is resilient. The issue with using TVL as a broad metric is the lack of detail that is not shown. For example, the number of DeFi transactions, growth of layer-2 scaling solutions and venture capital inflows in the ecosystem are not reflected in the metric. In DappRadar’s July 29 Crypto adoption report, data shows that the DeFi 2Q transaction count closed down by 15% versus the previous quarter. This figure is far less concerning...
Optimism loses 20M tokens after L1 and L2 confusion exploited
The honeymoon period for the Optimism layer-2 scaling solution has been cut short, as an exploit in its market maker’s smart contract led to the loss of 20 million OP tokens. The exploit took place on May 26 but has only just been reported to the community. One million tokens valued at about $1.3 million were sold on Sunday. An additional 1 million tokens valued at about $730,000 were transferred to Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum address on Optimism earlier today at 12:26 am UTC. The remaining tokens are dormant for now but could be sold at any time or used to sway governance decisions. Hey folks–in the interest of transparency, we’d like to share some details about an ongoing situation:https://t.co/915vIgRIJG Summary below — Optimism (✨_✨) (@optimismPBC) June 8, 2022...
Vitalik shows support for Optimism’s governance structure and OP gas proposal
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shown support for Optimism’s new governance structure, noting that proposals such as using the OP token for gas fees shows “explicit representation of non-token-holder interests.” The Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution deployed the first round of its long-awaited OP token airdrop on June 1 as part of its new governance project the “Optimism Collective.” Optimism’s new governance structure involves two parties dubbed the “Token House” and “Citizens’ House.” The former is composed of OP governance token holders and the latter consists of “soul-bound” non-transferrable citizenship NFT owners. While it is unclear if Buterin is fully on board with a proposal from June 2 to utilize the OP governance token for gas fees, or just happy that such a discussion w...
Optimism airdrop overwhelmed by all-time high demand: ‘Scaling is hard’
Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Optimism has been overwhelmed with “all-time high demand” following the launch of its highly anticipated airdrop on Wednesday. Users racing to collect their tokens were greeted with failed or delayed transactions as the Optimism team raced in the background to add additional capacity to the network. As previously reported in April, Optimism is airdropping the new OP governance token — over multiple phases — alongside the launch of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) dubbed “The Optimism Collective.” Nearly 250,000 addresses are able to receive the airdrop, with the eligibility set for Optimism early adopters and regular Ethereum users, such as DAO voters, multi-sig signers and bridge users. According to Optimism Status, the mainnet...
iOS jailbreak dev wins $2M bounty for finding critical Optimism bug
Developers from the Ethereum Layer 2 scaling project Optimism announced that a “critical bug” had been identified and subsequently patched earlier this month. The bug, which could have enabled hackers to create as much ‘ETH’ in a Optimism account balance as they wished, was first discovered by white hat hacker and iOS jailbreak software Cydia developer Jay Freeman. Last week, I discovered (and reported) a critical bug (which has been fully patched) in @optimismPBC (a “layer 2 scaling solution” for Ethereum) that would have allowed an attacker to print arbitrary quantity of tokens, for which I won a $2,000,042 bounty. https://t.co/J6KOlU8aSW — Jay Freeman (saurik) (@saurik) February 10, 2022 In a deep-dive blog post, Freeman explained that the bug, “would allow an attacker to re...
Gombe governor commends federal government’s agenda of creating 25 million jobs by 2025
Gov. Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State has commended the Federal Government’s agenda of generating 25 million jobs by the year 2025. He stated this in Gombe, on Monday, while launching a two-day technical meeting on the preparation of the Medium National Development Plan (MTND) for 2021 -2025, for the six states in the North East Zone. The Governor, who was represented by his Deputy, Manasseh Jatau, said: “It is worth noting that the Medium-Term National Development Plan aims to create 25 million jobs, lift 34 million people out of poverty. “I will like to also appreciate Federal Government for taking a new approach towards achieving a more inclusive and effective participation of states and Local governments at different stages. “Involving everyone in the ongoing process of developing and imple...
IGP charges police officers to keep up with modern policing techniques
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, has charged officers of the Nigeria Police Force to keep themselves abreast of techniques and strategies of modern policing. Baba gave the advice Wednesday while addressing officers and men of the Nigeria Police at the Bompai Police headquarters in Kano. The Inspector General, who was on his first official visit to the Command since he assumed office, charged the officers to improve their knowledge on issues of democratic policing, human rights and other aspects of modern policing. Baba enjoined them never to be overwhelmed by challenges. Challenges are welcome and challenges are surmountable, he stated in respect to the plea for additional manpower to be deployed to Kano. He noted that even an additional 7,000 policemen were added ...
2023: Delta governor cautions political office holders against distractions
Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, has cautioned those who hold political appointments in his government against all forms of complacency or dereliction of duty because of their vested interest in the 2023 general election in the country. In a veiled reference to why he dissolved the state executive council and numerous senior political appointees, Okowa stressed that they should rather be preoccupied by the desire to redouble their efforts in contributing to the administration to enable it deliver on his electoral promises and finish strongly. The governor gave the charge yesterday at the Government House in Asaba while swearing in the new Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Chief Patrick Ukah, as well as eight special advisers whose appointments were announced last week. He ca...
