Lodge Letter #55
The BaaS projects are lined up. Under starters orders in fact. Waiting for the gun. Meanwhile, Web3 continues to attack itself and make the news for all the wrong reasons.
It’s been a reasonably quiet August in crypto in general. Only one major hack? Of a bridge, obviously. A truly frightening amount of money has been lost through bridges now — pick yours carefully. Just one bridge hacked in August? Is this progress?
How about privacy? The next wave of attacks on our decentralized world have resulted in Tornado Cash and their users being targeted by sanctions. The result? Tornado Cash DAO has gone dark. AWOL. Users are being blocked by other protocols for using the service. Even Justin Sun got snagged by a “gift” that resulted in his being banned by Aave. He’s but one of many who have fallen foul of the decision-making by protocols scrambling to distance themselves from association with Tornado Cash.
This screams of scapegoat tactics. The leaders and “managers” of huge funds and centralized entities who defrauded an incredible number of their community and user-base by reckless borrowing and terrible engineering all walk free. These awful “products” or platforms and their tokens still exist. Some even have v2.0 up and running; sucking more money from victims new and existing. Yet a decentralized privacy protocol is hounded into submission? Sounds about right for a world where the power is centralized.
Web3 and decentralization is a movement but sometimes it feels like it’s trying to destroy itself. Thankfully we can look to Gandhi for some words on where we actually are:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Web3 is certainly not being ignored, and at times it appears to be a joke, a painful joke for many, yet naysayers are enjoying the laughter. Sanctions are the start of the fighting. That only leaves…
Join the dots. Stay safe.
BaaS Alpha Testing
Our BaaS Alpha testers have been gathered, and their journey in exploring the speed, efficiency and capabilities of Elk is just beginning. What will they find? What will be built? What will break? (On testnet — that’s the point!)
Here’s a secret, not a big one but a secret nonetheless — we are looking forward to seeing what the talented developers and engineers can make ElkNet do! It’s more than that, we’re excited, we’re pumped, we’re head over heels in love with the assembled team.
This is the chance to experiment and utilize the technology that our founder, Baal, and his team has created to provide a resilient and effective cross-chain interoperability solution for Web3. Or Web5 depending on what who you follow on Twitter.
Farm Adjustments
Round 15 farms are now live. See the changes below.
Let’s keep it brief this week. It’s summer. School’s out. The sun has been beating down on Europe as they’ve enjoyed, and complained about, a serious run of high temperatures.
Maybe it’s time for a dip in a pool?
We heard that Herd Pools were being prepared in the Elk forest glade…they sound inviting and refreshing. More details when we’re ready.
Splish splosh.
