🤨 EthHub Weekly? Where’s Block by Block?
In case you missed it last week, the Block by Block Weekly Newsletter is now EthHub Weekly!
You can check out last weeks newsletter for a full breakdown of all the changes and plans for the future.
We also have a weekly recap podcast where we go over the highlights from the newsletter. Head here to subscribe so you don’t miss this weeks recap (usually live 36 hours after the newsletter goes out).
News of the Week
😮 Coinbase Announces Plans to List Additional Assets
Coinbase is the most conservative exchange in cryptoland, largely because it operates in the U.S. under the watchful eye of the SEC. The $8 billion-valued company trades fewer than ten cryptocurrencies to consumers but on Friday it announced a major expansion that could see it list up to 30 new assets. The crypto community reacted strongly to this announcement as some of the assets listed are dubious at best.
The trading-related revenues of exchanges are down as much as 50 percent over recent months and, while the numbers for Coinbase aren’t clear, there’s no doubt that its revenue is taking a big hit during this ‘crypto winter.’ That makes it easy to argue that Coinbase is widening its selection to increase potential volumes and, in turn, its revenue — particularly since it just raised $300 million from investors at a massive $8 billion valuation.
🤔 ConsenSys Undergoing Major Strategy Shift
ConsenSys is reorganizing. The company, which is working to build an internet of decentralized applications on the Ethereum blockchain, has entered a new phase called ConsenSys 2.0, which its leadership says will be marked by greater efficiency, accountability, and attention to revenue. Underperforming projects will get the axe, and the arm of ConsenSys that oversees venture investment will become more like a traditional startup accelerator.
The crypto boom of 2017 led to an astonishing hiring rate at ConsenSys: Since February, the company’s workforce has doubled to more than 1,100 people, spread across 29 countries. Much of that growth was funded by Lubin himself, who is said to be the world’s single largest holder of ether.
ConsenSys will initially lay-off 13% of its workforce with more job cuts in the future likely.
⚖️ SEC Delays ETF Decision, Again
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) extended a rule change proposal allowing the nation’s first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), pushing the decision deadline to next year.
In a notice posted online, the securities regulator said it was extending the review period for the ETF to Feb. 27, 2019. The proposal was first submitted by money manager VanEck and blockchain startup SolidX, who partnered with the Cboe exchange earlier this year.
Under SEC rules, a decision on the proposal cannot be delayed any further, meaning the next notice must either approve or reject the ETF.
💰 Fidelity, Bitmain Lead Investment into ErisX
Crypto trading platform ErisX has closed a Series B funding round that raised $27.5 million, the company said Tuesday.
Bitmain, ConsenSys, Fidelity Investments, Nasdaq Ventures and Monex Group participated in the funding round, investing in the new derivatives and digital asset trading platform for the first time. ErisX, which is being built by derivatives market provider Eris Exchange, was previously announced as a platform for trading a number of cryptocurrencies, as well as bitcoin futures.
CEO Thomas Chippas said in a statement that the funding would go towards building up the platform, as well as growing the ErisX team.
👋 Ryan Zurrer Let Go by Polychain
Ryan Zurrer, a founding principal at $1 billion crypto-investment fund Polychain Capital was let go by the firm in recent months. Moving forward, Zurrer has chosen to advise firms, including Polkadot, a Polychain-backed blockchain project. His advisorship is bolstered by an existing role as a Web3 Foundation Council member.
Zurrer joined Polychain in 2016, according to Crunchbase. He left a considerable footprint as the chief “architect” of the Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFTs) contracts, which promises future rights to unreleased tokens.
Zurrer is also now working closely with Commonwealth Labs, a California-based governance-for-blockchain startup he advised while at Polychain. Zurrer has since reconnected with Commonwealth.and has independently helped them secure key contracts, as well as personally investing in the project.
Project Updates
Ethereums Next Network Upgrade Gets a Date
The much anticipated Constantinople network upgrade for Ethereum is scheduled for block #7080000 (around the 16th of January, 2019)!
Head here to see what’s included in Constantinople.
0x instant offers simple crypto purchasing in any app or website.
Instant is open-source, fully configurable, and allows hosts to earn affiliate fees on every transaction. Under the hood, Instant aggregates liquidity from 0x relayers for any ERC-20 or ERC-721 asset. It automatically finds the best prices within the 0x networked liquidity pool and lets users pay for tokens with ETH via MetaMask, Ledger, Trezor, or any other Ethereum wallet.
Mkr.tools is a website that tracks various metrics for the MakerDAO system. This week, creator Mike McDonald updated the website with a beautiful new UI. There are a lot of updates so be sure to read the full post!
Michael Oved from AirSwap gives an overview and update of all the work that’s been done since Fluidity was announced in May of 2018.
Bruno Škvorc from Status gives a development breakdown for Nimbus (a new Ethereum 1.0 client and a Ethereum 2.0/Serenity client).
Web3 Foundation Grants Program
The Web3 Foundation announced the launch of grants.web3.foundation this week.
The Aion Foundation have published their first transparency report which covers topics such as treasury balances.
The Graph November Development Update
Jannis Pohlmann from The Graph Protocol gives an overview of all the new features the teams been working on in November. Best bit? They’re close to launching an internal alpha!
Updates from the MetaMask team including a recap on Privacy Mode (which launched last month).
Signaling has gone live on the Ethereum MainNet. What is Signaling? Signaling is a mechanism designed to allow Cartographers to incentivize the growth and geographic coverage of the FOAM network. Read the full post for more details!
Bitfinex and Ethfinex Launch Additional Stablecoins
The exchanges now support USDC, True USD, Paxos and Gemini USD.
Decentralized margin trading and derivatives protocol dYdX have decided to adopt DAI as a quote currency for Margin Tokens.
Slow.trade uses the trading protocol DutchX and is slow by design; each auction can take up to several hours but provides the same price for all participants.
Project Spotlight
Settle is a web-native operating system for decentralized finance. Settle attempts to create a new open economy for DeFi protocols and trading tools. Key Settle features include:
- Chat with embedded OTC trading using the 0x protocol.
- Professional style portfolio tracking. Support for CEXes, DEXes, on-chain addresses and derivatives.
- Ecosytem of third party apps incentivizeded with 50/50 subscription sharing.
- Dashboard with a unique design to help traders better see important information.
Interesting Tweets
- CDP 3228 play by play
- The long-term 0x strategy
- The state of the 0x project
- Bounties, prizes and hack ideas for EthSingapore
- Does XRP qualify as a security?
- Why was the Compound Dai supply rate so high?
- #DeFi mythbusters
- The CFTC lost a big case to DRW Investments and Katherine Wu breaks it down
- Ethereum core values
- Is crypto winter the canary in the coal mine for a broader market downturn?
- Long Reads Sunday #23
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
- The Four Horsemen of Centralization
- A CBC Casper Tutorial
- 22 Ideas to Explore with 0x
- The Authoritative Guide to Blockchain Sharding, Part 1
- A Dive Into the AZTEC Protocol
- Uniswap — A Unique Exchange (recommended read)
- Stablecoins: Use Cases
- On Governance: Coordination, Layers, and Structural Integrity
Podcasts
- Ethereum Scaling Introduction (Into The Ether)
Videos
Misc
Block by Block Website Updates
New research added to the Block by Block website
- A Visual Guide to the Howey Test
- Stablecoins: Use Cases
- Uniswap — A Unique Exchange
- A Dive into the AZTEC Protocol
- The Authoritative Guide to Blockchain Sharding, Part 1
New resources added to the Block by Block website
Feedback
Thanks for reading. We’d love to get your feedback so please send an email to info@ethhub.io and we’ll be sure to get back to you! :)
