Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)
📉 Volatility Coming at You
What a wild week of volatility in the crypto markets – we started the week at around a $1,000 ETH and now we’re pretty much back at that price after going up to $1,350. Unfortunately, this means I am still unable to post on Twitter due to a silly promise that I made a couple of days ago – I hope I don’t have to wait a few weeks to tweet!
On a more positive note, Eric and I will be back doing the weekly EthHub recap podcast from today so be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss it – there’s obviously a lot to talk about!
Have a great week everyone!
– Anthony
News of the Week
🤯 Federally Chartered Banks Can Facilitate Stablecoin Payments, Says U.S Regulator
National banks and federal savings associations can use public blockchains and stablecoins for settlement, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said in an interpretive letter published late Monday.
The letter indicates that banks and savings associations can now run crypto nodes and utilize associated stablecoins for “permissible payment activities.” This means banks can use public blockchains to validate, store, record and settle payment transactions as long as they’re compliant with existing laws.
It also specifically mentions the use of stablecoins for transactions, saying blockchain networks can mitigate costs for cross-border transactions as a “cheaper, faster, and more efficient” means of payment. For that reason, it’s empowering banks to utilize blockchains and their stablecoins for converting to and from fiat during remittances — and even issue stablecoins if they so choose.
🤡 Block.one CTO Daniel Larimer Announces Resignation
Daniel Larimer, the chief technology officer of crypto project Block.one, announced his resignation on Sunday.
In a blog post, Larimer said that he resigned from the project at the end of last year, noting that “all good things must come to an end.”
Block.one, which is the firm behind the EOS blockchain, raised $4 billion to build out a rival to Ethereum. Larimer has been with the company since April 2017.
“I will continue on my mission to create free market, voluntary solutions for securing life, liberty, property, and justice for all,” Larimer wrote. “I do not know exactly what is next, but I am leaning toward building more censorship resistant technologies.”
Still, Larimer said that he will turn his attention to creating tools that allow people to “secure their own freedom.”
Project Updates
Gitcoin Year in Review
Gitcoin had an amazing 2020 and in this post they detail all that they accomplished including over $10 million being paid out to open source developers, 5 Gitcoin Grants rounds, 14 hackathons and more.
MetaCartel 2020 Recap
MetaCartel had a great 2020 with the continued success of the grants program, their presence at different Ethereum events and a recap of the MetaCartel family of projects.
Tether to Launch on Hermez
Stablecoin Tether (USDT) is launching on Hermez Network, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution that uses ZK-Rollups. Hermez said USDT will go live on the network when its mainnet launches in the coming weeks.
Sushiswap 2021 Roadmap
In this update, the Sushiswap team details their 2021 roadmap including BentoBox, Governance updates, layer 2 work and more.
mStable Dev Update — December 2020
The protocol development team shipped MIP-3 and MIP-4, and spent the majority of their time working on SAVE v2, mBTC and the new AMM. The front end team also focused their time on design and development work to compliment the eventual deployment of SAVE v2, mBTC and the new AMM.
Gas improvements were also launched for the mStable platform.
Alpha Homora V2 Detailed
Alpha Homora v2 includes a new logo, new user interface, more functionalities, and more partners including Balancer, Curve, Cream and Sushiswap.
Furucombo Raises $1.85 Million
The round was backed by SevenX Ventures, Defiance Capital, 1kx, Multicoin Capital, and Aave founder Stani Kulechov, among others. With fresh capital at hand, Furucombo looks to expand its team and launch version 2 of its platform.
Umbrella Internal Alpha
The Umbrella Internal Alpha began last week and is live on mainnet with a $10,000 cap on funds. The intent is for user’s to test functionality in production with small capital amounts.
ShapeShift Goes DeFi
The Colorado-based non-custodial exchange is now routing orders through decentralized finance (DeFi) applications in a bid to get rid of know-your-customer (KYC) regulations that gutted the cryptocurrency trading platform back in 2018.
Yam.Finance Update
A recap of products launched, treasury growth, DAO updates and a look ahead to what’s coming in 2021.
Announcing Futureswap V2 Beta
V2 of Futureswap provides features that serious traders expect, including live pricing, more performant trading, and higher capital efficiency. Core features such as AMM style liquidity providing, incentivized usage, and community governance remain mostly unchanged.
Airswap 2021 Revamp
Airswap – the decentralized p2p trading protocol – is planning on a major revamp in early 2021, based on this announcement there seems to be major changes coming to the protocol from a smart contract, tokenomics, and even branding level.
EthBlock.art Now Live
EthBlock.art allows anyone to express their creativity using blockchain data and the styles made by talented creative coders and artists in the space.
Interesting Tweets
Ecosystem Bits
Blog Posts
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Exploring Eth2: Attestation Rewards and Validator Performance
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The Tokenomics of Staking Pools. What Are Staked ETH Tokens and How Do They Work?
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Five Intriguing Data Points About Ethereum’s Rally to $1000 and What Might Come Next
Podcasts
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Vitalik Buterin on Why Proof of Stake – Bankless
Misc
Meme of the Week
Looking for Work?
Top jobs listed on Cryptocurrency Jobs this week:
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Front End Engineer – Zora
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Automation QA Engineer – Aave
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Marketing Content Creator – Gitcoin
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Software Engineer (Data) – Dune Analytics
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+1000’s more on the Cryptocurrency Jobs website!
Support EthHub:
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Donations (ethhub.eth)