Weekly Project Updates: Scroll's Informal Launch, Blur Season 2 Coming to a Close, SSV Founder Called to Military Service, etc
1. Arbitrum Launches Short-Term Incentive Program (STIP) First Round of Voting Completed link
On October 13th, the inaugural round of the Short-Term Incentive Program (STIP) initiated by Arbitrum successfully concluded its voting phase. A distinguished array of projects, including Camelot, Jones, Dopex, GMX, Galxe, LODESTAR, Socket, Timeswap, RADIANT, Pendle, MUX, Frax, Tally, Rysk, Silo, Stella, Good, Gamma, Umami, Abracadabra, KyberSwap, OpenOcean, Angle, Trader, Dolomite, Premia, Vertex, Perennial, and Balancer, will participate in this endeavor. This program is designed to allocate 50 million ARB tokens as incentives to these projects.
2. L2 Network Scroll’s Mainnet Goes Live Unofficially link
On October 12th, according to on-chain data, the Layer 2 network Scroll, which focuses on zkEVM (zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine), officially launched its mainnet on October 8th. Although Scroll’s official bridge for the mainnet is not yet open, it is possible to conduct cross-chain transactions using third-party bridges like Owlto. Data from the Angry dashboard reveals that over 430 users have already bridged more than 310 ETH to the Scroll mainnet, with one address, 0x33…fb00, bridging 130 ETH. In March of this year, Scroll secured a $50 million investment at an $18 billion valuation, with investors including Polychain Capital, Sequoia China, and others.
3. FriendTech: Add an Extra Layer of Protection by Enabling 2FA Password in Your FriendTech Account link
On October 10th, Friendtech announced via a tweet that users can now add 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) passwords to their Friendtech accounts to provide extra protection, especially in cases where their mobile carrier or email services may be compromised. Both Friendtech and Privy teams cannot reset these passwords, so users should exercise caution when using this feature. Prior to this update, several users reported that their Friendtech platform accounts had been compromised, leading to the unauthorized theft of their assets.
SlowMist’s security researcher, Yuxian, also conducted tests on Friendtech’s new 2FA mechanism. This 2FA actually allows users to set an independent password. When users engage in activities related to trading keys, withdrawing funds, or exporting private keys, they are required to verify this independent password. It’s crucial for users to securely manage this independent password; otherwise, their funds may be at risk.
4. Blur’s Weekly Summary
a. Blur Announces the Conclusion of Season 2 on November 20 link
On October 10th, Blur dropped a hint via a tweet suggesting that Season 2 will come to an end on November 20th. This marks the first communication from the official account since July 27th. In September, founder Pacman mentioned that they were maintaining silence on social media to focus on development. According to Blur data, the top five Blur farmers are incurring significant losses. The number one farmer, CBB0FE (0xCB…4C82), has experienced a loss of 14,000 ETH. Hanwe.eth has realized a loss of 20,600 ETH, 0x77…5186 is down 48,000 ETH, Machibigbrother.eth has incurred a loss of 11,400 ETH, and Xiaoyu Technology.eth has faced a loss of 22,600 ETH. The top 5 Blur Farmer scores add up to approximately 532,970, with a total realized loss of around 116,600 ETH.
It’s important to note that these figures provided by Blur might not be entirely accurate due to the inclusion of Blend lending activities. For frequent Blend users, the actual losses may be lower than the displayed numbers.
b. Arca Initiates an Open Discussion in the Blur Community About Blur Fee Activation and Other Potential Upgrades link
On October 13th, the digital asset investment firm Arca engaged in an open discussion within the Blur community regarding the initiation of Blur fees and potential token upgrades. Their proposal suggests that Blur should implement a 1% trading fee, with all fees directed towards the smart contract for daily BLUR repurchasing and burning. Additionally, it proposes creating tiered fee discounts based on the amount of BLUR held in a user’s wallet.
Arca further mentioned that BLUR’s only current utility is for governance voting rights, but in the past eight months, only one proposal has been voted on. Governance voting rights have not proven to provide sufficient incentive to hold BLUR. As a result, BLUR has experienced an approximately 89% decline from its peak. With the distribution of 300 million BLUR at the end of Season 2, the current token structure may potentially lead to further depreciation.
5. Uniswap Foundation Requests a DAO Allocation of $46.2 Million to Support Work Over the Next 2 Years link
On October 11th, the Uniswap Foundation initiated a proposal to request the disbursement of the remaining $46.2 million from last year’s initial fundraising for supporting their work over the next two years. They have also proposed increasing the buffer by 10% to mitigate price fluctuations.
The proposal outlines that the Uniswap Foundation plans to continue developing the Hooks ecosystem through the end of 2023. They intend to launch scholarships in October 2023, continue hosting IRL Delegate events, and establish more digital communication channels. Their plan for 2024 includes building an ecosystem consisting of Hooks and application developers. This involves further development of the Hooks platform, driving the adoption of v4, expanding the contributor team through grants, extending support for recipients, and creating incubation studios, among other initiatives.
6. Lido Finance Faces 20 Slashing Incidents Due to Validator Issues link
On October 12th, Lido Finance released a tweet stating that their protocol experienced 20 slashing incidents due to a series of infrastructure and signing configuration issues with validators operated by Launchnodes. Lido expects to incur losses of approximately 20 ETH, valued at $31,000, with additional penalties during the validator’s troubleshooting process. Launchnodes and DAO contributors are actively investigating the matter.
On the same day, LidoFinance announced that the root cause of the validator issue had been identified. Launchnodes expressed their intention to compensate the stakers, and they promptly paid 25.663 ETH before the day’s rebase. This means that stakers did not experience a reduction in rewards due to the interruption and slashing issues.
7. Frax Finance‘s Weekly Summary
a. Frax Finance Releases Official Documentation for FRAX v3, Introducing Five Major Collaterals link
On October 9th, Frax Finance released the official documentation for FRAX v3. FRAX v3 is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar that utilizes the Asset Management Optimizer (AMO) smart contract and permissionless, non-custodial subprotocols as its stability mechanisms. Two internal subprotocols used as stability mechanisms are the lending market Fraxlend and the automated market maker Fraxswap. The external subprotocol employed as a stability mechanism is Curve. FRAX v3 will introduce a fully external collateral, ensuring that the protocol maintains a >=100% collateralization ratio, remains pegged to the dollar, and utilizes Chainlink oracles to track the dollar. It also incorporates the Federal Reserve’s Interest on Reserves Balance (IORB) oracle, eliminates multisignature trust assumptions, and adheres to five key benchmarks to ensure the stability of FRAX stablecoin.
b. Frax Finance to Launch sFRAX, a Collateral Pool Backed by U.S. Treasury Yield link
On October 10th, according to Blockworks, Frax Finance introduced a collateral vault called sFRAX (staked FRAX), which is backed by yields from US Treasury bonds. They also launched a bond product that matures into FRAX stablecoin. Sam Kazemian, the founder of Frax, mentioned in an interview with Blockworks that starting from Monday, users will be able to deposit sFRAX and earn a 10% yield, which will later decrease to approximately 5.4%, aligning with the current Federal Reserve’s Interest on Reserves Balance (IORB) rate.
8. SSV Network’s Israeli Founder Alon Muroch Called Up for Military Service link
On October 11th, Alon Muroch, the Israeli founder of the Ethereum staking infrastructure SSV Network, announced in a tweet that he has been called up for military service, and the situation is much worse than what has been reported in the news.
A.Matthias, the Global Business Director of SSV Network, also tweeted on the same day, stating that the entire team is operating as usual, and team members are becoming more united.
9. Farcaster Achieves Permissionless Registration link
On October 5th, the decentralized social protocol Farcaster announced that it would achieve permissionless registration on October 12th, with the first 2000 Delegate user addresses prior to October 5th being eligible for direct registration. Users can access a web page that follows a standard SIWE process and verify through EIP-712 signatures.
As of October 14th, at the time of drafting, according to data from @pixelhacks, since the permissionless opening to users on October 12th, the decentralized social network Farcaster has seen approximately 164,000 Farcaster IDs (FID) registered within the first 24 hours, accounting for approximately 87.5% of the total user count. Farcaster previously secured $30 million in funding led by a16z in 2022 and received recommendations from Vitalik Buterin.
10. TangibleDAO: Panic Selling Causes USDR to Decouple as All Liquidity DAI in the Treasury Is Redeemed link
On October 12th, the Polygon-based stablecoin Real USD (USDR) experienced a significant price drop within hours after the depletion of DAI. TangibleDAO, the entity behind USDR, issued a statement stating that all the liquid DAI in the USDR treasury was redeemed in a short period, causing a rapid decrease in market value. This, coupled with a lack of DAI for redemption, led to panic selling and a decoupling. The official team is actively exploring solutions and will make an announcement soon. The current situation is primarily a liquidity issue, and the real estate and digital assets backing USDR remain intact and will be used to support redemptions. As of the time of drafting on the 14th, USDR was priced at $0.54, significantly decoupled from its peg.
Follow us
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain
Telegram: https://t.me/wublockchainenglish