Weekly Project Updates: PEPE Team's Coin Sale Controversy, Decentralization Plans for Base, etc

Aug 26, 2023

1. Ethereum’s Weekly Summary

a. The 116th Ethereum All Core Developer Consensus Meeting (ACDC) link

On August 25th, Christine Kim, the Vice President of Galaxy Research, posted a summary of the 116th Ethereum All Core Developer Consensus Meeting (ACDC). Developers confirmed that all EL and CL clients have joined the Dencun testnet Devnet 8, but Besu and Erigon are yet to run validators. Jayanthi submitted an overview document for the Dencun upgrade tests, which includes EVM-related tests for Dencun EIPs impacting EVM, synchronization tests of blocks and blobs between EL and CL clients, and user assessments of chaos testing under different chaotic conditions. Plans for launching Devnet 9 were discussed, along with some issues in the Holesky testnet.

b. Genesis File for Ethereum Public Testnet Holesky Successfully Created link

On August 26th, according to Ethereum developer @parithosh_j, the genesis file for the Ethereum public testnet Holesky has been generated. It has been confirmed to go live on September 16th at midnight. The testnet has been initially configured with 1.46 million validator nodes (almost twice the mainnet count) to test the scalability of the validator set. Additionally, an initial supply of 2 billion hETH testnet native tokens has been issued (addressing the prior shortage of gETH, the native token of the Goerli testnet).

2. Official Disclosure of PEPE’s Multisig Coin Sale: Former Members’ Unauthorized Sales and Subsequent Deletion of Multisig Permissions link

On August 26th, in response to the transfer of approximately 160 trillion PEPE tokens (valued at around $15 million) to a centralized exchange (CEX), PEPE issued a statement to the community. The statement addressed internal conflicts that have troubled Pepe since its inception. Many members of the Pepe creation team had distanced themselves from the project early on, leading to disagreements and an inability to reach consensus or obtain signatures. The PEPE multi-signature treasury was set up with a 3/4 signature approval, but yesterday, three team members secretly accessed the multi-signature wallet and withdrew 60% of the treasury, which amounted to 160 trillion PEPE tokens. These tokens were then transferred to an exchange for sale. Following this action, the team members removed themselves from the multi-signature wallet, deleted all social media accounts, and left a message stating, “The multi-signature has been updated, and you now have full control.” Currently, control over the official Twitter account and the remaining 100 trillion PEPE tokens in the multi-signature treasury are secure and have been transferred to a new wallet. Pepe is negotiating with several domain name owners to acquire domain names using PEPE tokens. After potential purchases and donations are completed, the remaining tokens in the treasury’s multi-signature wallet will be burned.

Additionally, Pepe mentioned that due to the compromise of the old Telegram group account, the official Telegram community has been taken over. It advised against clicking on any links and stated that all official communications will occur on its official Twitter account.

Crypto influencer @Crypto_Noddy pointed out that the open letter released by Pepe’s official Twitter account contained misleading or inaccurately stated information. The original signers of the multi-signature treasury remained at 2 out of 8 signatures, reduced from 5 out of 8. The threshold was lowered to 2 individuals, and no multi-signers exited or were deleted. The multi-signature treasury originally had 5 out of 8 signatures, not 3 out of 4. However, one could argue that one individual controlled two addresses (yesterday’s proposal included 4 empty addresses). The signing of the remaining funds today involved different signers compared to yesterday.

3. Base Reveals Decentralization Blueprint for Superchain, Encompassing Fault Tolerance and Diverse OP Client Implementation link

On August 25th, Base unveiled its decentralized plan for the superchain, aiming to ensure the network’s resistance to censorship through the implementation of fault-proof mechanisms and the use of diverse client software. Coinbase will collaborate with Optimism Collective and OP Labs, dedicated to transitioning Base towards complete decentralization. Furthermore, the Base team actively contributes to OP Stack, initiates the creation of the OP chain, and establishes the ecosystem of the superchain. They also intend to assist in forming a superchain security council to enhance the network’s security and decentralization.

Base has formed a profound partnership with Optimism Collective. Base has committed to contributing 2.5% or more of its sorter’s total revenue to Optimism Collective. After deducting the costs of data submission to L1, Base will contribute 15% of the profits obtained from L2 transactions to Optimism Collective. As part of its involvement in on-chain governance and contribution, over the course of the next 6 years, Base has the opportunity to earn up to 2.75% of the OP supply. Furthermore, Base assures that its voting power in Optimism Collective’s voting will never exceed 9% of the total voting supply at any given time.

4. Uniswap Processes Transactions Worth Approximately $110 Billion in Q2 link

On August 25th, data shared by Ryan Rasmussen, a researcher at the cryptocurrency asset management company Bitwise, reveals that during the second quarter, Uniswap processed transactions worth approximately $110 billion, while Coinbase handled transactions worth about $90 billion. Prior to this, Uniswap had surpassed Coinbase’s quarterly spot trading volume for the first time in the first quarter, facilitating transactions worth around $155 billion and $145 billion respectively.

5. OpenSea Pro Introduces 0.5% Platform Fee on All Listings link

On August 22nd, OpenSea Pro announced via a tweet that starting from August 31st, a platform fee of 0.5% will be applied to all listings on OpenSea and sales created on OpenSea Pro, due to adjustments in creator fees. This adjustment is deemed necessary to prevent market manipulation and to maintain the utmost accuracy in transaction data.

6. EigenLayer Unveils New NFT Series “EigenWorlds” with Free Minting link

The new NFT series “EigenWorlds” by EigenLayer has now opened for free minting. Everyone is eligible to mint these NFTs, but there are three distinct levels based on the interactions within the wallet: Restaker (re-staked within EigenLayer), Collector (holding Zora NFTs), and Base Layer (no interaction with the EigenLayer ecosystem). The deadline for NFT minting is August 30th.

The imposed cap on EigenLayer’s liquid staking tokens (LST), including stETH, rETH, and cbETH, was removed on August 22nd at 23:00 Beijing time. Following this removal, a significant influx of users deposited LST tokens into the platform, briefly causing gas fees to surge to 166 gwei. Due to the stETH token staking amount reaching 100,000 tokens within EigenLayer, it is no longer possible to deposit new LST tokens into the EigenLayer platform.

7. Cross-Chain Protocol Wormhole Establishes Wormhole Foundation with $50 Million Funding to Support Web3 Applications Integrating Wormhole Stack link

On August 21st, the cross-chain protocol Wormhole announced the establishment of the Wormhole Foundation. This initiative will be jointly led by Robinson Burkey and Dan Reecer. The foundation aims to foster innovation through the xGrants program, utilizing a fund of $50 million to nurture the next generation of cross-chain startups and to support the integration of the Wormhole Stack within Web3 applications. Additionally, a global community will be established through a scholarship program as part of this endeavor.

8. Blockchain Phone “Nothing Phone (1)” to Release Nothing OS 2.0 Next Week link

On August 26th, the blockchain smartphone collaboration between Polygon and the technology startup Nothing, known as Nothing Phone (1), is set to launch its latest operating system, Nothing OS 2.0, based on Android 13. The internal testing version of the operating system has already been initiated and will be officially released next week.

9. Balancer: Vulnerabilities Detected in Several V2 Pools, Urges Users to Swiftly Withdraw Affected LPs link

On August 23rd, the DeFi project Balancer issued a statement confirming the receipt of a severe vulnerability report affecting multiple V2 pools. An emergency mitigation procedure has been implemented to ensure the security of the majority of Total Value Locked (TVL). However, certain funds still remain at risk. Users are advised to promptly withdraw the affected LP tokens. The vulnerable funds represent approximately 4% of Balancer’s TVL. It’s important to note that the vulnerability has not been exploited and has not resulted in any financial losses.

10. Deployer Address of Magnate Finance Linked to Previous Rug Pulls by Solfire and Kokomo Finance, Accumulating $16.7 Million in Profit link

On August 25th, as reported by @BeosinAlert, the address associated with the deployment of the Base ecosystem’s lending protocol, Magnate Finance, is connected to previous incidents of Rug Pull involving Solfire and Kokomo Finance. Solfire executed a Rug Pull on January 23, 2022, resulting in a loss of $4.8 million. Kokomo Finance similarly conducted a Rug Pull on March 27, 2023, causing a loss of $5.5 million. Adding to this, the recent incident involving Magnate Finance amounts to a loss of $6.4 million. In total, the fraudsters have gained approximately $16.7 million.

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