📣 Join the Ethfinance Livestream every Friday 12pm EST in the EVMavericks Discord for a roundup of the top 10 Doots of the Week! Recordings will be posted to YouTube and Spotify.
🗓️ Weekly Doots | 👤 Community Profiles
🗳️ EthFinance Delegates | 🦁 Chrome Extension
1033 Dooters - Last Updated May 10, 2024
Recordings: Libsyn | Pods | Youtube | Spotify
Week #65: May 10, 2024
Special guest Prince Jindal joins us from Lantern Finance, a new liquid staking protocol.
Announcements
- Reminder: Mother's day is this Sunday (May 12th)
Upcoming Guests
- May 17 - Waq of Rocket Fuel
- May 24 - Anthony Bertolino of Obol Network
- May 31 - Chris/Jean-Paul/Interweaver of Influence
- June 21 - Brendan Asselstine of PoolTogether
The morning roundup
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cohjve/comment/l3e4lbl/)Ethereum
€2812
0.048
90,430 hodlers subscribed (+5)
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ckjkf6/comment/l2qfzdn/)Feel the blockchain beat,
The protocol is complete,
Rest is obsolete.
Shitpost of the week: u/HauntedJockStrap88
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ckjkf6/daily_general_discussion_may_5_2024/l2qeoko/)Idk man. I doubt that Blackrock, Van Eck, Franklin Templeton, Stripe, Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, JPM Chase etc. being interested in ETH is important.
We probably won’t even see ATHs again, or even appreciate in price from here.
When Larry Fink talks about instantaneous guaranteed settlement and the tokenization of securities I’m sure he’s talking about Cardano or Solana.
I’m sure Base deploying as a layer 2 on ETH instead of as an alt Layer 1 that’s just noise.
The United States Federal Government being concerned about DeFi as a national security threat is obviously not the most bullish thing imaginable. They totally always embrace technological innovation quickly and without question. If ETH was truly as disruptive (and lucrative) as we’ve all been suspecting the United States Federal Government certainly wouldn’t be raising an eyebrow at it. No sir.
Sell it all. ETH isn’t just a security. It a mega-doodoo scary evil security that is also a shitcoin of no importance and will clearly go to 0.
u/charitablechair sees web 2 thinking in airdrops
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ci7az9/daily_general_discussion_may_2_2024/l28airo/)After the EIGEN token announcement (and subsequent backlash) I've been thinking a lot more about how so much in the world of crypto right now seems to be the product web2 thinking i.e. VC money, financialized governance, etc etc.
One big plot hole with this web2 thinking, as I see it, is that it's really hard if not impossible to create a moat in crypto. Liquidity is never truly locked, vampire attacks are a thing, etc. etc. I personally believe that the crypto future that we were promised is not built on the back of for-profit, but rather autonomous public goods that are built and then kind've just put out into the world. Therefore this is a misalignment.
Adding to this rift is the fact that it seems VCs have figured out the crypto equivalent of the traditional attract->extract model. Since it is so hard to "turn a profit" in crypto, the main way to get paid is via this charade we call governance tokens. The attract cycle is building up TVL and hype, and the extract cycle is a user-hostile TGE and exit. This would explain...
- Tiny and arbitrary allocations (5-10% for the community, airdrops for random NFT projects, etc.)
- Opaque snapshot and TGE dates that of course insiders know beforehand
- No withdrawal functionality until after TGE as a way of inflating TVL numbers (looking at you Renzo)
- Non-transferable tokens (that is, until VCs are vested)
- Arbitrarily limiting regions and putting serious effort into blocking VPNs
The EIGEN announcement is of course disappointing, but in retrospect it's obvious that it would go this way.
The silver linining in all this is that once the dust settles we'll find that some things did get built with all this VC money after all. Those interested in creating public goods can take what's been built, clone it, and undercut it. Since I don't see a shift in how we fund crypto projects anytime soon, this is what I rest my optimism on.
u/PhiMarHal does their due diligence on the Swell L2
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ckjkf6/daily_general_discussion_may_5_2024/l2piabr/)The other day, one of us asked if depositing assets into Swell L2 was safe.
I took a look today!
Swell L2 isn't live, so currently you're depositing into a staking contract. The code looks clean and intuitive.
If you deposit rebasing assets like eETH or stETH or plain ETH, your deposit is first routed through a zapper contract to convert it to weETH, wstETH or wETH.
The zapping contract is here: https://etherscan.io/address/0xbd9fc4fdb07e46a69349101e862e82aa002ade0d#code
There's no issue with this contract. It's immutable, no access control, everything is clearly defined.
Then in either case, your assets end up in the proper staking contract.
The staking contract is here: https://etherscan.io/address/0x38d43a6cb8da0e855a42fb6b0733a0498531d774#code
It's a simple contract with a couple functions. When your assets are inside this contract, they are dormant, not used for anything and not exposed to extra risk.
Only you can deposit and withdraw your assets.
**EDIT: relevant update -> u/ennui85 points out the emergency function can't actually touch your deposits. That was a misread on my part.
This means the contract is 100% safe, much better than my "fairly safe" assessment.
-- end of original post below --
Save for one emergency function: the "owner" of this contract can withdraw the full balance of any allowed token inside the contract.
This "owner" leads to a Timelock: https://etherscan.io/address/0xCa2DF225ba3c4743E02611EC423FaAC311dEEEd4#readContract
The Timelock delay is set to 259200 seconds (3 days).
The "admin" of this Timelock leads to a 4-of-6 multisig: https://etherscan.io/address/0x20fDF47509C5eFC0e1101e3CE443691781C17F90#readProxyContract
Overall I'd rank this as "fairly safe" = less safe than Uniswap, but safer than PT/YT on Pendle and safer than money markets like Aave/Compound.
The 3 days delay on owner withdrawals should be a guarantee against any wrongdoing, provided you assume between $500M of TVL some depositors will monitor the multisig (or do it yourself). The code is simple, in a good way, your assets simply sit in this contract. There is no upgrade function of any kind, presumably the bridging to Swell L2 will be an entirely manual process once it goes live (which is also a good thing).
u/back_to_samadhi returns from a long time off and wants to catch up with how Ethereum is tracking compared to its initial vision and u/pa7x1 and u/hblask share the important stuff.
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ckjkf6/daily_general_discussion_may_5_2024/l2ovthg/)Invested in Ethereum in the 2014 ICO. I have been away for a long time. I'm currently unwell and do not have the energy to try to get up to date, I barely understood how POW worked.
Whatever Ethereum is today, does it still have promise of building a new financial ecosystem and being the backbone of finance? Mass adoption will come if the correct/needed applications are being built.
But at a quick glance the space seems to be slightly empty, and all I see are airdrops and yield farming, when Ethereum and in general crypto has (had?) the potential to create a real revolution and change humanity.
Can someone direct me to good sources of information I could read or watch to catch up with what has been happening since 2021? As I said, I'm very unwell and do not have the mental sharpness or strength to go in depth right now...even if I want to.
Ever since August 2015 I've been following the ETHBTC ratio, and although I'm not worried, I am starting to think perhaps my timeline for seeing a ratio bull market is farther away than I had hoped...perhaps this still needs a few years. Or perhaps this is a retest of the ratio breakout from 2021 before moving higher.
But we need a catalyst, and airdrops along with yield farming won't cut it. Ethereum needs to prove that a new financial system is on the way before a bubble similar to the dot com bubble is possible. Perhaps that's here, hence I'm asking for information to help me build an objective narrative. Thanks, and bless you all with good health...its much more important than any of this.
After the latest update that made rollups economically viable, Ethereum is ready for primetime. The vision for a new, efficient and transparent backbone for finance that dis-intermediates middlemen is finally possible technically. Before we were limited to 10-20 transactions per second which is clearly insufficient to meet global settlement needs. Right now we have room for around 300-500 tps and the scalability roadmap will keep pushing it further to the order of 100K tps.
The most significant roadblock right now is regulatory, the SEC and current US administration is very antagonistic of crypto and Ethereum in particular. But technology is unstoppable, once the genie is out it cannot be put back in. These hurdles will be overcome too.
If you have not been following you can hear it from the mouth of Blackrock's (biggest asset manager in the world) CEO himself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTveRlW7QPo
Wish you the best, take care of yourself.
I think people always look to the consumer/retail side to see if Ethereum is living up to its potential, but I think that is a mistake. I think the real potential is in the commercial side of things, such as the stuff Paul Brody is doing with EY. Just google "Paul Brody EY Nightfall". There are tons of videos.
The tl;dr is: EY is working on a set of business tools for supply chain tracking, so that companies can track every input and output of the supply chain from raw materials to consumer. Additionally, companies can ask for bids over the blockchain, award contracts, track performance, and do all the necessary accounting and payments.
They thought it would take about a decade to really build momentum -- like turning a battleship, you need a lot of lead time. I believe we are about halfway through that, and many companies are trying it and starting the transition.
u/issac_hunt1 shares our biggest frustration right now and u/cryptrd285 shares news behind it
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1claz43/daily_general_discussion_may_6_2024/l2uigbh/)The "regulation by enforcement" is so frustrating. You cant seriously tell me Coinbase, Uniswap and Metamask are the bad guys in crypto.. when so much blatant insider trading, pump and dumps every single day. It suggests that there is just some ulterior motive
Robinhood is one of the largest non-crypto companies to get into crypto in a big way (I mean for retail they have wallet/dex, and please the BTC ETF doesn really count in this), and now they are being sued. This is just intimidation and send a message to rest of the companies that if you get into crypto, you will be sued
Its no wonder no other big company has even tried. Last cycle there was genuine hope that companies will push into crypto. Nike, Coke, many played around with NFTs. Reddit came up with tokens. This cycle many more were gonna experiment....but now do you think a big company like Apple or Google will launch even a crypto wallet? If they dont know they are going to be charged as a "broker dealer" or "clearing agent" or "unregistered security" or whatever
Its just to kill crypto .... Its all part of the agenda to stifle any growth of crypto
SEC sues $COIN and claims SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL, SAND, AXS, CHZ, FLOW, ICP, NEAR, VGX, DASH and NEXO are securities
$HOOD gets sued and only list BTC, ETH, DOGE, SHIB, AVAX, LTC, UNI, ETC, LINK, XLM, and AAVE
So either SEC is making it up as they go or they missed a lot of “securities” when they sued coinbase
u/krokodilmannchen is now a mod of r/EthFiance
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1claz43/daily_general_discussion_may_6_2024/l2ttdat/)Completely offtopic but she said yes today. :) 🌟
u/Syentist covers their favourite recent Ethereum podcast series
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ckjkf6/daily_general_discussion_may_5_2024/l2o62mn/)Infinite Jungle podcast by Christine Kim (she used to do the tweetstorms after each ACD call back in the day) is easily my top podcast on the Ethereum ecosystem lately. Beats out the Daily Gwei which was my previous must-listen
There's two 30min episodes a week, the first which covers what the core devs decided in the previous week's ACDC/ACDE call, and the second which interviews someone from the Ethereum ecosystem.
The best part is she has a way of explaining hard to understand concepts almost like a school teacher - I've learned so much about account abstraction, Verkle tries, the EVM, EOF etc, even despite having a rough understanding of these areas already.
u/llamachef shares a cool product they have been using since ETHDenver
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cm3wej/daily_general_discussion_may_7_2024/l2z31wi/)EthDenver follow up regarding Exponential.Fi, which was one of the stalls in the hall and had an offer for those that signed up during EthDenver. The offer was for those that verified by the end of the gathering, deposited and held the investment for 60 days, those that deposited 1,000 USDC got 100, and a 10,000 deposit got 1,000. Just got passed the 60 day mark and got the offer paid out, so that's neat.
The Exponential product, in my view, is trying to make defi appear through a more traditional investment bank wrapped. You login, do the KYC and all, and can either deposit from your Bank through Bridge or send via an Eth wallet, on mainnet, Arb, Polygon, and others, and you can send Eth or usdc. Once deposited you are presented with a variety of portfolios and projected APRs to invest in, denominated in currencies like eth, BTC, stables or some alts. They have pretty charts and stuff, and easy to understand descriptions of what's being invested in and the risk (and I just found you can click on "Full Report" to get a detailed breakdown, like quality of code, usage, reliability and more, and links to the actual defi site and a discord to discuss), like USDC-Across bridging, the Arb TriCrypto, etc . Pretty easy to invest into something, isn't instant like defi, I suspect they delay a day or two to try and batch transactions. Once invested it shows your average return and projected, again with charts and percentages. Pretty slick overall.
I like the product for a couple reasons. First, it keeps (and kept) me from doing wilder defi things because I knew I had to invest for the 60 days. It also allows automatic reinvesting of profits, like a traditional investment fund. Will probably keep my investments there since it pretty much was funded with eth profit taking. It's a very nice site and I don't need to be doing lots of wallet approvals and transactions to do anything. I'm assuming the tax report will be pretty nice when the time comes. And hey, they followed through on their 60 day promise of a USDC reward and I can't be sad with free USDC.
Cons, though not super cons I guess. KYC with ID, so very tradfi. Also, for some reason you can only withdraw in the same amount as you deposited, you can't divide it up, which is weird cause I can do that with stocks and the like. So I've got the ability to withdraw my whole initial deposit, or my profits. The fee page says they can take up to 1%, when I looked at mine it said 0.2%, so a positive in understanding the fees involved, but no variability for onchain gas or timing to make it cheaper.
Not shilling (the majority of my defi is still via wallets), but just think it's a good way to take defi into the tradfi space.
u/benido2030 introduces the Ethereum Defence Alliance
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cmwhiy/daily_general_discussion_may_8_2024/l33js7o/)Good day EthFinance,
I would like to share a new initiative: The Ethereum Defense Alliance. So what is the Ethereum Defense Alliance or EDA?
We are a group of individuals and entities with the goal of protecting Ethereum against risk vectors and fostering a robust and sustainable network.
The EDA was initiated last year when the threat of Lido was even greater than it is today and as you all know it has evolved since then. Some EthFinance members like u/hanniabu, u/bob-rossi, u/minimalgravitas and myself are EDA Stewards and we are trying to coordinate people and ideas. There are already many more members and entities that have joint the EDA.
We saw the power of coordination and importance of governance to protect the network. The EDA’s mission is protect Ethereum from centralization and risk vectors in every shape of from through:
- Collaboration: As the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child”. We aim to bring together individuals, projects, and organizations from across the ecosystem to promote positive change as a united front.
- Education: Knowledge about decentralization pitfalls and their common causes is important to prevent the community at large from falling into them. This is our first (and possibly best) defense against risk vectors.
- Governance: Project governance can have influential effects on the rest of the network. The EDA contains delegates from key projects who will prioritize and advocate for chain health.
- Monitoring: We are developing tools and resources to actively monitor threats to Ethereum’s decentralization to catch issues early.
- Change: Once a threat has been identified, we look to spread awareness to the broader Ethereum community for swift course correction.
We believe this community understands the risks as well. Basically the search for delegates is/ was already one of the EDA's initiatives. But governance is only a means to an end and there is obviously more than that. We are looking forward to your input. The goal is to become even more proactive and drive changes before threats even show up. If you have any questions, you can post them here, contact one of us or use the contact form on the EDA homepage.
u/asdafari12 has the latest US regulatory shenanigans
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cmwhiy/daily_general_discussion_may_8_2024/l3650hy/)Even if there are bipartisan pro-crypto agreements in congress, Biden is prepared to veto it according to a press release from the White House today on one such potential agreement that is being voted on later today. Is this how democracies should work?
Basically, the SEC issued guidelines (SAB 21) that banks, brokers-dealers, and many other entities can't custody digital assets. They did so without first asking for comments or coordinating with other agencies.
See link below for full reasons given why they want to nullify the SEC SAB 21. It is a good brief read that makes sense to me. Risks are also bigger if all custody is concentrated to Coinbase.
https://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=409242
Week #64: May 3, 2024
Special guest Swagtimus joins us from Scroll, an EVM-compatible ZK rollup.
Upcoming Guests
- May 10 - Prince Jindal of Lantern Fi
- May 17 - Waq of Rocket Fuel
- May 24 - Anthony Bertolino of Obol Network
- May 31 - Chris/Jean-Paul/Interweaver of Influence
The morning roundup
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cj0i2a/comment/l2cu7zo/)Ethereum
$3000
0.05025
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ccjko5/daily_general_discussion_april_25_2024/l198yvs/)Time to sue Gary,
It's not even that scary,
The man can't parry.
Shitpost of the week: u/doomfuzzslayer
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cfqsz4/daily_general_discussion_april_29_2024/l1symqm/)As a marketing gimmick EL offers an F-35 fighter jet for some seemingly impossible amount of points. Rogue degen discovers a levered YT exploit - obtains required points. EL sued and forced to provide the jet -degen learns to fly it. F35 with ETH symbol appears over Ukraine - Russia requests cease fire. Jet appears again over Iran then Israel - both sides lay down arms. Same jet appears over San Francisco - solana headquarters hit by mysterious electronic warfare attack. Solana goes down for 17 days - SOL token does a 5x (it’s still in beta guys). Degen closes levered long and pockets 320 million - retires - two decades of world peace ensue.
u/benido2030 has an important warning to anyone taking on extra risk
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ccjko5/daily_general_discussion_april_25_2024/l17i846/)Guys, I am absolutely in favor of trying out new stuff, that's perfectly fine and normal (and somehow incentivized). But please keep in mind: If you have no idea what the protocol or asset really does, you probably don't understand the risks.
I am saying this today because of the liquidations yesterday and some questions in today's daily, but I was already very surprised some months ago when some members here deposited (rather large sums of) ETH into Eigenlayer without understanding what it does, what this deposit does (or does not) do with your ETH, timelines, etc.
You all are obviously free to do stuff with your money, this is a permittionless industry, but I am a conservative boomer that cares for you. I don't want you to lose money, because you fucked around and found out. You can lose money, we probably all do from time to time. But don't risk too much of your stack in protocols and assets you don't understand, for unclear upsides.
In a bull market you literally have one goal: Keep your ETH. The problem in a bull market. They all want your ETH. If you part with it, do so after spending some time really understanding what you're doing and getting yourself into.
Boomer Bearnido out.
u/coinanon shares some top picks for the latest Gitcoin Grants round
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ccjko5/daily_general_discussion_april_25_2024/l16espi/)This is a reminder that the latest Gitcoin Grants round is active. My picks for this round:
dApps & Apps
- rotki
- Revoke.cash
- growthepie
- Smold.app
- Smoothly
- ethstaker.tax
Web3 Infrastructure
- The Tor Project
- Lighthouse by Sigma Prime
- L2BEAT
- Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS)
- DefiLlama
- EthStaker
Developer Tooling
- Blockscout Block Explorer
- Web3.js
- Otterscan
u/haurog shares a big disappointment
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cdcy19/daily_general_discussion_april_26_2024/l1bzi7o/)Let me ramble about my biggest disappointment from the last year which is Eigenlayer.
When I first heard about it, the concept was a bit difficult to grasp. Once I started grokking it my mind was blown. Decentralized trust, where validators can start to run various services along their nodes and they can make truth statements about the world. It would lead to a world where we would be getting independent of centralized truth brokers. Projects could easily and trustlessly tap into the decentralized Ethereum network and start, for example, a decentralized oracle without having to kick start such a network on their own. It could even encourage the decentralization of the Ethereum network by giving small home stakers a better revenue than centralized operators as decentralization would have a value. Rainbows and unicorns everywhere. Obviously, I filled some of the gaps in my understanding and Eigenlayers very minimal docs with the best possible outcome.
Last autumn when I first saw the requirements for running the first AVS which is EigenDA, I realized that is not something just any node operator will be able to run on their node. Their delegated stake requirements made the problem even worse such that only a selected few operators will be able to run the EigenDA AVS.
Now, with EigenDA mainnet release, we have a few powerful entities like etherfi and other LRT providers which are the king makers in the protocol apparently having bilateral agreements with AVSs to make sure they can get the most profitable deals. The AVS operators have pretty much nothing at stake. If they loose money, they loose the money of the restakers, and meat space legal agreements will be the only thing keeping them in compliance. Not sure this is enough to be honest. All in all it is not much better than if projects outsource running their services to a service provider which will run stuff on a data center somewhere. The restaked assets were historically meant to be ETH on the beacon chain, which would directly map operators to their stake. Now, a large part is just 'restaked' LSTs and as far as I understand it soon could be any token. This is a far cry from the original vision. Not sure if it is good enough to even be long term profitable for restakers considering the nothing at stake risk for AVS operators.
EDIT: I love all the different takes and nuances. Thank you.
u/Fast_Contract has some more Gensler goss and u/Set1Less shares their thoughts
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cdcy19/daily_general_discussion_april_26_2024/l1cpbmf/)"Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said Thursday that cryptocurrencies and intermediaries that allow holders to “stake” their coins might pass a key test used by courts to determine whether an asset is a security. Known as the Howey test, it examines whether investors expect to earn a return from the work of third parties."
I wouldn't say eth fits into that since you don't gain anything from just holding it in a wallet, but Reth and steth certainly do.
I think that a court if presented with the right facts, will find that a pure proof of stake consensus mechanism like ETH 2.0 does not infact satisfy the howey test, because there is no demonstrable common enterprise that is built into the protocol. Solo stakers who earn rewards from staking do so, not because another party does the work and they earn their share from others work, but because they put in the effort themselves and whatever rewards they earn are the results of their own work
I remain pretty confident that if this matter goes before a court, the court will have no option but to rule that proof of stake consensus mechanism by itself does not violate howey's rule.
If it comes to other staking mechanisms like delegated proof of stake or liquid staking, then there could be various entities playing the common enterprise role. But in a pure pos mechanism, there is none. The rewards are baked into the network - like new issuances to fund the staker rewards, sync committee rewards etc.
If SEC were to make this claim in a court, I would be ultra bullish on a highly likely defeat for the SEC. Crypto companies arent exactly fucking around either, both Coinbase and Consensys have got the best law firm in USA to represent them, the calibre of lawyers is 2 or 3 leagues better than the muppets at SEC
u/asdafari12 shares a new feature on Etherscan
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ce6bam/daily_general_discussion_april_27_2024/l1h5j6q/)New Etherscan feature launched called Cards, in a special section. One shows unclaimed airdrops. It seems to be a cooperation with Bankless. I found it still listed STRK despite me already claiming and it didn't give the ETHFI airdrop so it might not be 100%, but still pretty nice. Especially if you have multiple wallets, you can check them easily.
It also shows blockchain messages and token approvals - pretty nifty. Anyone can apply to Etherscan in a form with their project and they might consider it as a card, if it's useful enough.
How it looks on Vitalik's address below:
https://etherscan.io/address/0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045#cards
Edit:
Looks like Bankless hides a lot of the drops between a paywall. Not a fan of that.
u/Set1Less covers some really bad legal precedents which may be set in the TornadoCash case
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ce6bam/daily_general_discussion_april_27_2024/l1j4tzk/)Tornado Cash case. Government's response to motion to dismiss
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.604938/gov.uscourts.nysd.604938.53.0.pdf
The gov is basically arguing that smart contracts are money transmitter businesses and should KYC users and run a BSA program.
This is real bad. If this sticks ( most likely does unless the judge specifically over rules these arguments) it means DOJ can go after any company or person that created a wallet or a dapp (smart contract) or any crypto product claiming they are unregistered money transmitters - irrespective of the fact that the wallet or smart contract doesnt allow them to control customer funds
It opens up the potential for a 6 AM FBI Open the door and arrest for anyone working in crypto
u/BazzRavish32 celebrates the one million active validators milestone
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ceybho/daily_general_discussion_april_28_2024/l1qka2y/)- 1,000,004 / 1,000,000
- Epoch - 280045 / 280042
- Current Slot - 8961440
- Active Validators - 1000004
- Pending Validators - 14387 / 0
- Staked ETH - 31999770 ETH
- Average Balance - 32.06 ETH
u/Wulkingdead is feeling a bit down about all the news and u/pa7x1 busts some of the FUD in a linkl they shared
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ceybho/daily_general_discussion_april_28_2024/l1m1sqr/)Damn reading yesterday's reddit im feeling down...
Consensys complaint isn't looking too good: https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/s/Y0pWVVy3CM
Potential huge risk in the tornado cash case targeting smart contracts: https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ce6bam/comment/l1j4tzk/
R/cc has 2 top posts about vitalik talking about centralization and it's filled with Ethereum hate.
And with the SEC being on a war with crypto,... Yes they are losing a lot but they aren't done yet.
I hope this all turns out ok. Why is crypto investing never relaxed, it's always stressful lol.
I went over it quickly but I have a hard time to take them seriously when there are obviously in bad faith arguments. Let me pick the one that most quickly jumped to me while I was scrolling through.
At some point they make this argument:
And they go on a long tirade to argue against it as provably false. But the complete opposite is true. It's a provably true argument. After EIP-1559, transacting on Ethereum necessitates ETH, this is completely unavoidable. The argument Consensys is using basically boils down to, to use the Ethereum network ETH is necessary. Going after ETH, kills the possibility to use the network. And this is true, even if you assume all the fancy goodies of account abstraction. Someone needs to pocket the ETH to transact on Ethereum, either the end-user or the wallet provider with account abstraction. Now let's look at the arguments:
Can I install a fresh instance of MetaMask in my browser or as an app & generate a fresh Ethereum address with no ETH? ✅
Not a transaction settlement.
Can I go to EthCC or wherever & get a cool POAP dropped to this Ethereum address with no ETH? ✅
LOL, not a user transaction settlement. But someone is paying for that use of the network. If they kill ETH through regulatory maneuvers I can assure you, you will not be getting a POAP or anything in the US.
Can I login, check-in, connect to cool blockchain dapps, sites, friends, and spaces with my ETHless EOA that has my new POAPs on it, to maybe get more POAPs, or just to browse, or whatever? ✅
Not transactions on the network. And the POAP argument was just covered.
Can I sign messages & authorizations & authentications with my ETHless EOA? ✅
Not transactions on the network.
Heck, can I sign contracts with my ETHless EOA? ✅
I start to see a pattern here. 100 ways to say I can still sign stuff with my public key. Everything except actually using the network which is the argument Consensys was making.
Can I be served with legal process to my ETHless EOA? ✅
?
Do at least some of these interactions constitute “transactions on the blockchain”? ✅
Absolutely not. They are not transactions on the network. To transact on the network you must spend ETH, this is unavoidable after EIP-1559. EIP-1559 is what made ETH a commodity in the most literal sense. Is the commodity you consume to settle computation on a global settlement layer. Signing something with a public key is not using the Ethereum network. It's not propagated nor settled on the network.
Do people do things like this onchain 🦊 and irl, even without ETH? ✅
?
Is this legally significant? ✅✅✅
Dunno if it's legally significant but it is factually wrong.
EDIT: And to clarify why I think this article is written in bad faith. Whoever wrote it understands well enough the technology to very meticulously choose a niche use case of your public key (i.e. you can use it to sign messages) and conflate that with transacting on the network which is not. There is a lot of intent in whoever built this argument to confuse things, they are arguing for US-based users to not be able to use the Ethereum network, period. And they are willing to twist reality to get there.
u/hanniabu is disappointed by some of the influencers takes on EigenLayer and u/Tricky_Troll relates this to a wider trend he has been noticing
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cfqsz4/daily_general_discussion_april_29_2024/l1v9awy/)It's so frustrating seeing the marketing push happening right now with influencers on Twitter acting like Eigen Layer's token is some amazing breakthrough.
They act like it's some amazing new revelation that EL will have it's own protocol rules and not affect Ethereum consensus. Like no shit, why would it have any bearing at all on Ethereum. And this is coming from people that I know are definitely smart enough to understand this, all using the same language, so the only reasonable conclusion is they're getting paid to push this narrative.
When you have enough money you can create your own reality b/c there'll always be people willing to bend their morals for payment.
I'm slowly giving up on meaningful things coming from the space beyond what has already been or is being built. Most things from this point onwards feel like they're increasingly more disconnected from the core values of this space. Instead it's VCs building yet another level of financial engineering just because they can. So aside from some less hype-y DePIN projects, a small selection of aligned L2s, teams working on FHE and other core values related projects, I'm getting pretty over this all. I look forward to the day where I can cash out at my target price and just perpetually stake my only validator node to do my part in keeping the decentralised vision alive.
u/austonst digs into the EigenLayer token whitepaper
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cgkmut/daily_general_discussion_april_30_2024/l1wf60r/)I actually never put funds into any sort of EigenLayer restaking; while I was always interested in the concept, the points system and insane levels of hype for an unreleased protocol triggered some circuit breakers in my brain and I just couldn't let myself participate materially. So congrats to those with access to a good amount of EIGEN, and my condolences to those who feel rugged by the distribution parameters and/or geographical/IP blocking.
The more interesting topic for me is the release of the EIGEN token whitepaper. The authors present EIGEN as having a critical role in restaking and I'd like to try to break it down a little.
Restaking provides economic security to AVSs through the threat of slashing deposited collateral. If you (or more specifically, your delegated operator) follow the rules, you get paid. If you break the rules, you get slashed. But under the hood, slashing rules are encoded into smart contracts, and preferably the logic isn't just "the AVS devs have complete power at any time to choose who to slash". The contracts can be smarter than that.
The paper looks at two different categories of faults, the bad things that would trigger slashing. These are objectively attributable and intersubjectively attributable faults. Objective faults are the more straightforward of the two. This is where the contract can directly verify that the fault occurred. Think of double signing: the contract can easily check that yes, the same private key did sign two different conflicting messages, and therefore committed a fault. Fraud and validity proofs can also fall under this category: someone does something malicious, someone else creates a SNARK proving it was wrong, the contract verifies it, and slashing occurs.
These are not always easy or possible to implement for an AVS, but detection and resolution of these faults is straightforward. EigenLayer with restaked ETH is perfect for this.
Intersubjective faults occur when there is a generally agreed upon truth but it is not mathematically provable on-chain. The standard example is price oracles. The contract doesn't know what's happening in the real world. We can all agree that the current market price of ETH is ~$3200, but the contract has to find some way to get a price feed from a source it can trust. Maybe that would be an AVS with a decentralized group of validators casting votes about the current price. The majority vote wins, so if the validator set is sufficiently decentralized, the correct price becomes a Schelling point.
If everyone says ETH market price is $3k but I cast a vote saying it's worth $10k, despite my number being much better, I'm not following the rules of the AVS. Anyone can look at actual market data and confirm that the price was actually $3k and that I'm in the wrong. But the contract itself can't objectively confirm that $3k is correct and $10k is wrong. So it's through agreement of the validator set, and my lone disagreement, that determines that I have committed an intersubjective fault. Other potential sources of intersubjective faults include censorship resistance/detection, data availability, and as a stepping stone in verifiable computation before proving can be fully SNARKified.
Identifying intersubjective faults through majority votes works well... as long as the majority is honest and can all agree on the truth. There are a few ways this can break down. First is when a malicious attacker gains control of a majority of votes: they can trick the system into accepting an incorrect truth, and simultaneously slash any honest validators. Bribes make this possibility scarier. Second is when the truth itself is ambiguous, and honest voters may come to different conclusions. Maybe we're giving Ethereum an oracle price feed of another chain's native token, and that chain undergoes a contentious fork; which fork's token price do we follow?
In the end, with the intersubjective on-chain voting mechanism having broken down, the system has to fall back on social consensus, usually implemented through forking. If a malicious majority is saying the market price of ETH is $1, the rest of the world knows that's wrong, so we'll come to off-chain social consensus to make a fork. The old system is abandoned, and at the social layer everyone agrees to move to the new fork, which likely introduces socially-agreed-upon state changes to slash the attacker and "unslash" any honest validators caught up in the attack. A forkable oracle could also do just that to mirror a fork in the tracked token.
So what happens in the case of EigenLayer when an attacker gains majority ETH control of an AVS with intersubjectively determined slashing conditions? We have actual honest Ethereum validators who could end up slashed and effectively (or literally, post-Pectra) booted from the Ethereum network. The social layer could come to the rescue again, but it would mean a hard fork of Ethereum itself to slash the malicious actors and restore the honest ones.
Vitalik wrote a well known blog post on this subject, referring to the issue as the overloading of Ethereum consensus. One of the greatest risks is that we get a repeat of The DAO, where disagreement on if/how the social layer should resolve an application issue caused the Ethereum chain as a whole to fork. It's not too hard to imagine a situation where a large AVS gets intersubjectively attacked, an uncomfortable number of honest validators have their ETH slashed, and we once again have to decide between allowing some harm to the health of the network, or forking on behalf of a broken application. We really don't want to find ourselves in a position where we have to seriously have that debate again, and EigenLayer needs to be careful to not enable that.
The paper talks about social consensus from the perspective that tokens/projects have certain social conditions agreed upon during their initial setup phase that determine how to resolve intersubjective faults later on. Bitcoin's community agreed on the longest chain rule for PoW consensus. Ethereum's community agreed on its fork choice rule as well, but with a stipulation that the goal would be to move to PoS, an important decision during the "setup phase" that eased the social acceptance of the transition. Rollups and national governments also follow this paradigm. EigenLayer's perspective is that allowing intersubjective restaking of ETH would be a violation of Ethereum's setup phase--citing the same Vitalik post. They argue that intersubjective restaking in general requires a very specific setup phase where the entire community engages with the token with a very specific set of expectations around its principles and intended use.
So the answer: Design the EIGEN token specifically for the purpose of universal intersubjective staking. Design all AVSs so that all objective faults are backed by ETH, and all intersubjective faults are covered by EIGEN. In case of a failure of the intersubjective systems that requires social intervention and forking, that will be handled through the EIGEN token's own forking system rather than overloading Ethereum's social consensus.
EigenLayer actually envisions a system that contains two tokens, EIGEN and bEIGEN. I'm not going to go into full detail about the tokens and forking behavior, but I can provide an overview, specifically of their V1 design. bEIGEN (b is for "backing") is what is used internally within EigenLayer; it is what is actually staked with an operator and may be forked into different versions over time to resolve issues at the social layer. EIGEN abstracts that complexity away for the purposes of DeFi, providing a token that can be used without worrying about the forks going on behind the scenes.
bEIGEN forking is pretty interesting. An intersubjective fault can still result in slashing, as usual, but each AVS must implement a system by which anyone can raise an alarm about a fault to suggest that there is a need for social consensus to resolve a dispute. If there is an issue, e.g. attacker controlling majority stake, a challenge can be raised in the form of an ERC20 contract fork of the bEIGEN token. So you end up with the old pre-forked bEIGEN1 and new post-fork bEIGEN2. bEIGEN1 holders can claim their bEIGEN2 for a limited time.
In order to raise a challenge, the challenger must burn a significant amount of bEIGEN1--this is the cost to them if their challenge turns out to be incorrect and bEIGEN1 remains canonical. The challenger must also tag a sufficient amount of bEIGEN2 tokens as malicious, these will be burned in bEIGEN2, and punish the attacker if the challenger is correct and bEIGEN2 becomes canonical. Once both tokens exist, the social layer takes over and through market price discovery, adoption of the tokens by AVSs and other protocols, etc, decides which token is correct and canonical.
Through this method, the need for a social layer to intervene in some intersubjective faults can be realized. Ideally, AVSs are designed to minimize ambiguity about which fork would be correct if you just check the real-world source of truth. So in most cases it should be obvious. But it's probably unavoidable that some will be contentious, those will be more fun to watch play out and I'll be glad Ethereum validators aren't at risk.
Technical note: the reason why bEIGEN2 redemptions are limited-time is because it needs to be shorter than the withdrawal time in order to prevent an attacker from committing a fault, withdrawing, and claiming the bEIGEN2 tokens anyway. By having t_redeem < t_withdraw, the attacker has no way to get around their punishment. This carries the unfortunate design issue of putting a limit on redemption time. bEIGEN holders who delay may see all their value evaporate.
The EIGEN token is designed to be insulated from all that, because imagine what a nightmare that would be for DeFi integrations. Anyone with bEIGEN can wrap it to become EIGEN. The EIGEN contract provides its own governance to follow the various forks of bEIGEN and swap its contents to reflect its view of the canonical bEIGEN token. When unwrapping, it will only ever return the bEIGENx it considers canonical, not any other others. In short, if you hold EIGEN, you are trusting its governance system to accurately follow the canonical fork and in exchange don't have to worry about the forks yourself. The obvious risk is that if governance is wrong or corrupt, you may end up holding junk.
The big change in their proposed V2 is that the EIGEN contracts become immutable, and so must also be forked to create a EIGENx to match each bEIGENx. This creates a sort of historical record of the fork history through the various contracts, which gives EIGENx holders the option to hold passively and later claim all the bEIGEN tokens along the fork history, while protecting them from malicious EIGEN governance.
This seems to hurt the DeFi usage of the token, as each EIGENx will remain its own tradeable token. I think only the most recent EIGENx will be used, as it's the only one that could be actively wrapped from bEIGENx, so that would mean DeFi protocols would have to add each new EIGENx as they come out. But it's still much more convenient than using bEIGEN in DeFi. At least with EIGEN there's no pressure to redeem forks immediately; with bEIGEN if you don't manage to untangle it from nested DeFi positions and redeem forks in time you're screwed.
The big thing here is that ETH restaking will only be used as economic security for objective faults, while (b)EIGEN provides economic security for intersubjective faults. Intersubjective faults often require social consensus to resolve through a fork (e.g. The DAO) and can sometimes be contentious. So the biggest benefit of this system is that the Ethereum social consensus layer is not pressured to fork the chain in order to resolve issues with an AVS. Without this there's a really good chance that a too-big-to-fail AVS would eventually get attacked and Ethereum would face a difficult decision about whether to fork to protect the honest stakers caught up in the incident, possibly bad enough to create an Ethereum Classic 2.0.
The biggest downside to me is the breakdown of EigenLayer as an ETH REstaking platform. Anyone can deploy a smart contract through which you can stake an ERC20 token as collateral and earn rewards for computational services while taking on slashing risk in case of misbehavior. A general marketplace for buying and selling economic security, kinda neat.
EigenLayer is particularly interesting in that it uses ETH (which is possibly the world's best collateral asset), and all of the ETH it has access to for security is also actively involved in regular ETH validator duties. For me it feels like there's a fundamental difference there. That having your AVS's economic security come from the same ETH that's securing the network feels like you're sharing in that same security, like you're tapping into a particularly valuable, established set of actors. Ethereum validators are already committed to locking up their ETH to earn rewards, if EigenLayer makes it easy to access the same set of actors, you know you're able to easily source high quality economic security for any project that's willing to pay for it, rather than bootstrapping a validator set from scratch.
EIGEN isn't "restaking", it's just... staking. To be fair, it's a token designed to be the best universal intersubjective staking token, allows delegators to provide security to numerous shifting AVSs simultaneously, and will have tooling around it to make it easy for AVSs to adopt. So it's the basis for a nice market for economic security for anyone who wants to buy or sell it. But in my mind it loses that critical edge that ETH has.
If EigenLayer dropped ETH altogether and EIGEN were used as the sole medium of exchange for economic security in their marketplace, I feel like I'd hesitate to use it. Wouldn't you? To some extent I feel like EigenLayer gained a lot of prominence specifically because of the ETH restaking direction, and it's a bit of a light rugpull to say "now that you've gotten on board, you have to buy our token in order to use half of our system". Maybe it helps that the airdrop goes in part to ETH stakers who followed the incentives, making it easier for them to participate in both aspects? And maybe this is a necessary tradeoff to avoid overloading Ethereum consensus; there's no other way?
Regardless of the above, I think it's clear that EIGEN as a staking token is a riskier play for EigenLayer than ETH restaking. It means a notable increase in complexity and risk factors. The system described in the paper is in no way simple to design or implement. And this token's close integration with critical staking systems means Ethereum as a whole has more risk exposure to Eigen Labs. Should we be putting more work into protocolizing EigenLayer in the same way that we're working towards ePBS? In taking this step, EL further invite this discussion.
I have been a little frustrated with the rough state of AVSs at this point in EigenLayer's launch, and how few of them have really described what slashing is going to look like (despite them being literally live on mainnet!). This announcement does explain it somewhat: AVSs are going to have to factor EIGEN and intersubjective faults into their designs, so it would have been unfair to expect them to develop their slashing mechanisms before this was described in detail. So cool, maybe they can work on their economics now finally. But at the same time... why the heck did EigenLayer deploy to mainnet before this info was released? Why?
I haven't really done a deep dive on the theory of forking tokens, so I can't really analyze that too deeply. But I have always thought it's a cool idea, and enjoy reading about governance systems designed with forking as a central concept, e.g. The DAO, Nouns DAO. The paper draws comparisons to Augur's REP token but doesn't list others that really fork an application's utility token. So this may actually be pretty novel, EigenLayer is huge and their forking system is very likely to be stress tested by malicious actors. I'm very curious to see how it plays out.
And I guess that's that. The paper is 43 pages, so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad that this ended up so long. Always happy to explain more details from what I understood of the paper. And even happier to get corrections and different perspectives.
u/Set1Less sheds some light into why projects are geoblocking
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1chdtev/daily_general_discussion_may_1_2024/l249d29/)One of the CT resident lawyers did a thread on all this yesterday. I'd suggest anyone having these questions to go through that
TLDR is that these are all legal issues. Its not that the project says lets take their money and defraud people or lets block US, that is a good idea for us.. No.
Its all down to legal constraints, and projects trying to waddle through unclear regulations, protecting them from potential government charges. Projects tell users, infact make it very clear from the very start not to expect airdrops for the same reason - they dont want to trick people into thinking they are going to airdrop, but end up not airdropping few countries or jurisdictions because of sanctions or regulations. So they make it very clear there isnt gonna be an airdrop. If someone files a lawsuit - they can just point to the message posted 12 months ago in discord #Wen-token channel that says dont expect an airdrop.
Similarly, the locked is also locked to make the token appear decentralized from the start. There is a belief that a locked token has less chances of being labelled a security (since it has no value), so the project is airdropping a locked token. And they will want the community to create proposals to unlock it, add value to it
No doubt, for end users its painful - you locked $50k for 6 months only to find out you arent eligible and the whole country is blocked. At that point you are mad, and dont want to hear "legal thingies". But the bitter pill is that all of this is due to not just unclear regulations but potential regulatory actions against projects/founders. US users must consider that there is a high chance they will be ineligible for most airdrops. So either they should not farm airdrops or acquaint themselves with gud airdrop claim technology (VPNs that work)
Of course, one will say that XYZ project 2 years ago airdropped us, and didnt do all this, you guys suck. Again the fact is that now the times have changed, regulatory environment has worsened. If you follow what is going on for the last 24 months, its kinda obvious...
Coming to Ryan from Bankless - I really dont envy his job of trying to explain all this to a crowd of people who think they've been sold short.
Week #63: April 26, 2024
Upcoming Guests
- May 3 - SwagtimusPrime of Scroll
- May 10 - Prince Jindal of Lantern Finance
- May 17 - Waq of Rocket Fuel
The morning roundup
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cdcy19/daily_general_discussion_april_26_2024/l1b62r9/)Ethereum
$3142
0.04889
3,966 validators to go till a million active validators.
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1c99qz0/daily_general_discussion_april_21_2024/l0nrwf2/)Kindly taking note,
Blockchain is no antidote,
It is a lifeboat.
Shitpost of the week: u/Itur_ad_Astra
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1c6v2o5/daily_general_discussion_april_18_2024/l065y1a/)Ethereum: Undergoes infinity halvings. I SLEEP
Bitcoin: Undergoes one halving. REAL SHIT?
u/monkeyhold99 asks about which EigenLayer operators to delegate to and gets many great responses
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1c6v2o5/daily_general_discussion_april_18_2024/l03ooit/)Looking for a list or some comparison of safe Eigenlayer operators to delegate to. Any help?
I see Aestus mentioned here but not familiar with their background.
EigenYields seems sketchy upon further inspection.
Etherfi has like 8 different operators, but are they all the same?
I also see Staked.US and they seem to have a good track record, but they shut out Americans from airdrops so how would that work if you’re an American restaker?
Or, is it best to just wait until some of the larger exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken get in on the game?
u/STRTRD is doing the lord's work reaching out to large staking providers still using the (almost) supermajority client.
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1c6v2o5/daily_general_discussion_april_18_2024/l06nlme/)(Reposting since reddit deleted last post because of links.)
Few weeks ago when finding of Geth bug was posted here I decided to contact top 11 majority-Geth/undisclosed staking operators listed on supermajority info (having 1% and more network penetration)
I presented myself as a current/potential user, concerned about client supermajority issue, asking about their current setup and potential plans to improve client diversity status.
Contact was made through emails, customer support or Discord. Here are the summaries of respones I recieved:
- Binance: We understand the concerns around supermajority usage and its impacts on network security and user funds. While we are devoted to ensuring the highest level of security for our users, as a standard security practice, we do not disclose specifics about our internal infrastructure including Ethereum validator client details. This policy is in place to shield our operations and safeguard user assets. However, we take threats to network security seriously and continuously improve our infrastructure in response to evolving industry developments and security principles. Diversifying into minority clients is indeed a recognized method to spread risk and enhance security. Rest assured, we have expert teams constantly observing the ecosystem and shaping our approach.
- Kraken: We would be unable to discuss any exact details of how we manage Ethereum client diversity, one of which is indeed GETH. Kindly note however, we are acutely aware of the benefits to the chain and for our own risk mitigation that client diversity brings, as such we do have strategies in place to this effect.
- OKX: Kindly be informed that OKX uses supermajority execution clients and we are unable to provide any confirmation on plans to diversify to minority ones as this decision requires the approval of a significant majority of stakeholders or participants to proceed.
- Bitcoin Suisse: "At present, Bitcoin Suisse primarily employs GETH for our execution layer nodes, as you've noted. We're in the process of evaluating the use of an additional node provider besides GETH. However, we're proceeding cautiously to ensure a seamless transition, prioritizing stability and security considerations." They are now listed with 90% Geth, 10% Besu.
- RockX: no response, Discord
- Blockdaemon: no response, sent inquiry on their site, got forwarded to email, then email forwarded me back to site
- Hash Key Cloud: no response, site form
- Prysmatic Labs: Yes we are in the process of testing Nethermind on our setups. This takes a while as we need to have reasonable confidence in testnets before moving on to mainnet.
- Chainsafe: "Almost there. We are doing some extended testing on a small group of mainnet validators right now and will roll out the rest of them later this week if there are no issues." Also this tweet suggests that they are 30% Nethermind instead of 26% listed on supermajority: "The Lodestar and Infrastructure teams currently run 30% of our validators with and will continue to increase this alongside inclusion of ."
- Kukis Global: "We will update our stats on supermajority info soon, we are currently close to 60% Nethermind and 40% Geth and will go towards 0% Geth this year." Indeed, they are listed at 50% now.
- Figment: no response, made contact as a potential user, still waiting
I think Binance, Kraken and OKX (8% combined) should be campaigned further through social media and other channels to ensure they make an action. It seemed to be effective with Coinbase, we saw Brian Armstrong responded personally to DC on twitter, it also worked with consensus clients.
Many smaller operators seem to be steadily working towards diversifying, but feel free to check up on them as well.
Community did bring awareness to the problem and it improved, we can get it to 50% or below.
u/KuDeTa is looking to hire an Ethfinancier as a DevOps engineer for Aestus!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1c7okhx/daily_general_discussion_april_19_2024/l0af6kk/)The Aestus MEV Relay is hiring a DevOps Engineer.
Frankly when u/austonst and I started this projected ~20 months ago, we both imagined (hoped?) it would have become irrelevant by now. However, ePBS is an unsolved research problem that even optimistically feels years away from any kind of resolution. So - we intend to set things up to play a long term game. We still think it's crucial to the long term health of Ethereum that credibly neutral players occupy this space - because MEV is an incredible centralising force.
We've recently received some funding from an Optimism retro PGF round, which ethfinancers were instrumental in supporting. So, it's because of the fine work from people like u/superphiz and u/bendido2030 that we are in a position to hire at all. It would be great to return that trust by sourcing someone close to this community.
The ad suggests this is a full-time role, but we're very open to committed part-time contributions — and this could be a fun, albeit intense, side-gig for someone. Your primary role will be to help us improve the performance and stability of our existing architecture and develop a plan for the future. The right person will have very strong cloud and k8s experience in domains including observability and security. Generalist coding capability, a willingness to absorb new information and learn new skills are also essential. You'll also be part of an on-call rota.
This work brings you very close to the core Ethereum protocol and part of your job will to be stay on top of research and developments in the MEV and ePBS space. While for me the most exciting part of this project has been in the constant adventure of working at the bleeding edge - there are many unknowns - and that also means that whoever we hire will have to accept a bit of insecurity. Having said that, the additional capacity will allow us to spend more time exploring new services and opportunities both in the relay ecosystem and beyond - restaking and shared-sequencing are both ecosystems where we think our ethos and experience can make a difference.
Worth also noting that unfortunately and for complicated reasons, we can't hire anyone resident in the US. I hope i'm not breaking any rules by posting this here!
u/atleft is looking to help reach out to StarkNet about misallocated airdrop tokens.
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1c7okhx/daily_general_discussion_april_19_2024/l09nsgw/)Starknet's foundation is well aware that mistakes were made in the initial round of provisions. There are numerous efforts underway to address those mistakes and find a more positive way to move forward. In that vein, I am hoping that some of you who feel they were unreasonably excluded from the first round will share a) why you feel that way, b) the account address (DM me if preferred), and c) what criteria you feel *should* have been applied. I am asking in my capacity as a Starknet delegate and member of the Starknet builder's council to provide as much guidance as I can back to the foundation.
Edit: doesn't have to be limited to *your* account. If you know of any accounts that are good examples, please forward them along.
u/haurog shares some scams targeting him lately and u/austonst educates us on the latest evolution
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1c7okhx/daily_general_discussion_april_19_2024/l09nkij/)A very good indication that we are in a bull market is the pick up of the various scam attempts I come across. A few weeks ago my cold wallet on Ethereum was getting spammed with address poisoning attacks. Cost the spammer several dollars for each poisoning. I cannot really believe that these kind of things are worth it for them, but apparently they are ready to spend real money to do it.
Then came a cold DM on telegram from someone wanting to borrow my github account for a day. I blocked them so I never found out what they actually wanted with it, but I guess they saw my github account in the list of some airdrops and they would have wanted to claim them.
Yesterday I got DMs on Discord and Telegram with freelance coding job opportunities. These are close to 100% a scam as well. At the moment I am talking to them to try to find out how they would want to scam me. The slightly worrying part about the DMs is that they feel a bit closer to me than address poisoning. Especially, when these messages have been sent on two different apps (discord and telegram) simultaneously. Seems like someone is adding my user name to their scamming database.
I've got an addition to /u/haurog 's scam watchlist from yesterday. My more valuable wallets have been getting hit with address poisoning attacks, which at this point I would hope most people here are familiar with. And this should really be addressed with better tools at the wallet/etherscan level.
But more interestingly, my personal cell phone was hit today with a text message:
COINBASE: An unauthorized device from Salt Lake City, Utah has logged into your Coinbase account. If this was not authorized by you, please reply with "N". If this was authorized by you ignore this message.
I caught on immediately, in part because I wasn't actually sure I have a Coinbase account (I checked, and I do, but I didn't even really complete account setup, never set it up to receive fiat or crypto funds). But also because I had just recently read this article on Ars Technica, which describes the abilities of the CryptoChameleon phishing-as-a-service toolkit. It's a really good read, would recommend. But the first step of one of CryptoChameleon's techniques is described to be similar: a phone call telling the recipient that there was an unauthorized login and asking them to press "1" or "2" to accept or deny.
This is kind of tricky because there's not really any immediate danger in replying "N" (or pressing "2" to deny). If it's legit then you've done your part to prevent an attack. If it's not legit, then all you've done is sent a pointless text message. And users have become increasingly used to dealing with these kinds of messages from all sorts of account logins, so it may not ring any alarm bells. Why not send a quick "N" and be done with it?
But my understanding is that the first step of a scam is by far the most important. On one hand, some scams deliberately use dubious sounding claims (Nigerian prince, anyone?) as an initial filter, so that the savvy users weed themselves out, and the people who actually respond are more likely to be duped by the subsequent requests. But that's probably just a side-benefit here, maybe allowing the recipients without Coinbase accounts to filter themselves out. And it's notable that this message asks for action to deny and a non-response to approve. The vast majority of legit messages of this kind are the other way around: silence means deny. And that's smart, that's the way it should be.
More relevant this time is a sort of a sunk cost fallacy. In the world of video games that are "free to play" but with microtransactions for additional bonuses, it's well understood that getting the user to make their first payment is a massive step. Once someone has caved and paid once, they're much more likely to continue to do so. And at some point you can ask me about the fascinating ways in which a scammer on the streets of Istanbul employed a bunch of tricks to make it really hard for me to disengage once we had started talking, but that's a longer story. But in short: if a scammer can get you to take the first step, you're much more likely to fall for the following steps. So in this case, having the first step be something so likely to get casual responses means a higher success rate as a whole.
If the CryptoChameleon playbook described by Ars is accurate, there would probably be a followup text or email with a link to a fake phishing Coinbase login page, ready to take my password. I would hope even if people fell for the first step, they'd catch the issue at this point, but the danger could be that the first step being fairly risk-free would cause people to let their guard down.
This turned out longer than I planned, hope it reads all right. tl;dr: Scams nowadays will likely start with "unauthorized device/login" messages, these kinds of messages should make you consider if the source could be a scammer.
u/asdafari12 educates us on malicious transactions
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ca2coe/daily_general_discussion_april_22_2024/l0s0dpr/)Can I accidentally sign something malicious and it then drains my wallet?
Yes, hackers can be very creative. You could lose all of a single token, or an NFT or even native ETH. Not more than one type or token per signature.
I didn't think they could touch your ETH but just recently learned of a way. It uses eth_sign to have you sign a TX that the scammer generated in advance. It will only be valid for one nonce though. Basically, your private key has signed a TX that the scammer can create later, for example an ETH transfer. The wallets warn of those signature types heavily though.
It is also possible to lose many NFTs at once. I don't completely understand it but I remember when some people lost multiple Apes/Punks a couple of years back in a signing scam. Below is an article on it.
"However, signing a message like the second or third image on a website that turns out to be a scam will grant the scammers contract (and linked wallet) the ability to literally just buy all your approved NFTs to the specified contract under the “exchange” for ETH" -https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-gasless-signature-scam-heiner-garcía-pérez-u0ice
It can be difficult to spot a scam because the UI in Metamask is often abysmal for signatures. It's a lot better in Rabby but even there sometimes it doesn't understand things. It can then look like, you are trading asset 0xCY45... for asset 0x567DF... at a price of 85000000 gwei. That's just ridiculous and easy to make a mistake on any of the contracts or even the amount might be a zero too much/little. I have read of people getting scammed this way.
You should always be careful when signing. If you are some public crypto MVP with millions of USD, you should even be extra careful. Use a separate PC only for crypto. I read about someone at a crypto company that opened a job resume PDF, it had some kind of malware that affected his metamask to push a modified TX to his hardware wallet which drained the company of millions USD.
Separating wallets and having a multi-sig are good practices.
u/evm_lion has caught the FHE bug
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cawa14/daily_general_discussion_april_23_2024/l0y1iq6/)Logris got me very interested in FHE for the past few days. Thank you for sharing! The tech is super interesting as someone who consistently takes the long and dull path while navigating the internet to preserve privacy and reduce data-mining (even though I know that it doesn't change anything in the grand scheme). A bit surprised I didn't know about this technology before. Running algorithms over data without knowing the true input/output, while still knowing the validity of the computation is preserved, is mind-blowing, but also makes sense when looking a bit closer.
In a utopian future, where this is the new standard for how the internet and its services work, I wonder how companies will keep serving you things like relevant ads and a personalized experience. Although I'd be more than happy to live in a world without these "features", the incentives are just so strong that it doesn't make sense for them to let them go willingly. Anyone have any thoughts about this?
It would be nice if it turned into a marketplace, where you get these things served blindly through the same mechanisms, and got compensated for doing so (Brave had a cool visionary idea like this, but didn't work out that well in practice). A less cool approach would be design-patterns for applications to gate-keep certain features, like premium services or exclusive content in exchange for users opting in to give their data.
(Feel free to delete this if its too off-topic, mods)
u/waqwaqattack will be filling in the Daily Gwei shortage!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cbpygi/daily_general_discussion_april_24_2024/l11onv7/)Howdy y'all!
So, I think most of us here watch The Daily Gwei everyday. For those of you who do watch, you'll know that Sassal is taking a 2 week break from recording the show starting on Monday. During that time, I'm going to help fill in the gap by providing Ethereum news on top of Rocket Pool news on Rocket Fuel.
Sassal talks about it in today's episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhI6OsMVZk8
For those of you who want to follow along, my YouTube channel is www.youtube.com/@RocketFuel-RPL and I also release episodes via podcast here:
- Podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/cd29a3d8/podcast/rss
- Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/rocket-fuel
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Mvta9d2MsKq2u62w8RSoo
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rocket-fuel/id1655014529
I won't be able to match his knowledge and insights (or bullish rants), but it might be a useful stop gap while he's away.
u/SeaMonkey82 shares the latest Lodestar release
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1cawa14/daily_general_discussion_april_23_2024/l0ybdlt/)Lodestar v1.18.0 released today
Our new release contains some noticeable facelifts! We recommend this update to all users of Lodestar.
Our documentation located at https://chainsafe.github.io/lodestar/ is now using Docusaurus for a better experience. We've attached Plausible metrics to further help improve the contents of our documentation with minimal intrusiveness and open-source analytics. We continue to do content additions and improve our documentation for the best user and builder experience possible.
This release addresses many compatibility issues discovered from cross-client testing with Lodestar and other consensus clients. This also includes fixes for compatibility with some external DVT platforms and remote signers.
Target peers by default has been increased from 50 to 100 peers. Many users have already set this for better validator effectiveness and now we have it set by default to become a better peer on the network.
builder.selection now has a default setting that gives slightly preferential treatment to locally produced blocks via builderBoostFactor=90 . This configurable setting is set to 90 instead of 100 by default, requiring builder blocks from relays to be above ~10% profit to be selected. The previous default setting was maxprofit. This can be changed in your local configuration.
Basic devcontainer support is now integrated for easier development setups such as Github Codespaces. For more information, see https://chainsafe.github.io/lodestar/contribution/getting-started#devcontainer.
Week #62: April 12, 2024
Special guest Paul Brody joins us from EY and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.
Announcements
- EthStaker & Obol have a home/solo staker landscape survey, make your voice heard!
Upcoming Guests
- April 19 - SwagtimusPrime of Scroll
The morning roundup
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1c20q6p/comment/kz6xcdk/)Ethereum
89,856 hodlers subscribed (+7)
$3541
0.0499
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1c0dgy2/daily_general_discussion_april_10_2024/kyzhb6w/)SEC focused,
Uniswap got Wells noticed,
Block anecdotist.
Shitpost of the week: u/Fast_Contract
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bx39o4/daily_general_discussion_april_6_2024/kyab09z/)Give me one good reason why I shouldn't 80x leverage my entire stack then 80x that 80x then deposit all of that into a 980 day lockup of yxBgkLklyupyupYupfgCc-xETH to get frank points that can be exchanged for 200 yarn credits (at a rate of 649 Galaxy cones to 400 ant points I should have an apy of 49080%)?
u/LogrisTheBard does a deep dive on freedom
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bveuv9/daily_general_discussion_april_4_2024/ky32izo/)Let's take a moment to talk about freedom. Here in the US there's this point of national pride they try to imprint on you that the US was founded on principals of freedom and somehow spreads the torch of freedom around the world. There's the bill of rights they trot out, right to free speech etc. A pedantic point I sometime raise with people is that if something is discretionally permitted by the government, it is not a true freedom. Right to free speech? Not if you yell fire in a crowded room, start a riot, libel, slander, etc. If a judge can issue a gag order, speech itself is not a freedom; it is permitted. Driving is not a right; it is permitted. Owning a firearm is not a right, it is permitted, despite what all the 2A folks want to believe.
In terms of true freedoms, you have very few true ones and even amongst your permitted rights they are often being deprecated by technology. For example you had the right to privacy, the government couldn't open your USPS mail without a warrant. This is still technically true, but the vast majority of mail has instead become email and the US doesn't need a warrant to scry that. You had the freedom to transact with cash, but increasingly every payment is digital and those rights don't carry over. We hear frequently stories of people that go to deposit to a bank and have the deposit frozen. You have to report transactions over $10k, which practically means less and less expensive things in purchasing power each year due to inflation. Legislative inaction and judicial activism, in the face of technological progress, are eroding what few permitted freedoms we still have.
The notion that everything every citizen does should be permitted is attractive to those who wield power. They want you to have to ask their permission so they can say no and only permit actions that preserve or expand their position of power and at a time and place most convenient for them. The days tick by and the vice constraining what you are allowed to do silently tightens each day. The people who need freedoms the most are those with the most controversial ideas, the ones most likely to destabilize the status quo; for good or ill.
People like Warren fundamentally disagree with me on the freedom to transact. They want the freedom to transact to fully transition to a permitted freedom. They make arguments like "equal playing field" with the banks that are already wound in the straight jacket for them. They argue that the only people who need these freedoms are those with malicious intent. They reductively argue that blockchains are financing North Korea and child porn. Of course, they are only here to protect us. It's very much analogous to the "nothing to hide" arguments you get from the surveillance state encroaching on your right to privacy and it's every bit as ethically wrong. They couldn't be further from the founding principals of this nation if they tried.
Your transactions are an expression of your values. You invest in things you believe in, you buy things that add value to your life, you donate to causes you hold dear. Limiting your transactions is fundamentally an attack on your ability to express your values and shape the world to align with them. The moral compass of crypto is a controversial one, precisely because it bucks the trend and creates true freedom; for good or ill. So yes, there are scammers abound, memecoins with deliberately hateful content, and rugs every day but there are also people escaping the oppressive inflation of their nation state, financing art and innovation, and eroding the role parasitic middlemen plaguing our society.
So, asking for permission simply won’t do. I'd rather just be free.
u/Stobie explains token approvals
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bveuv9/daily_general_discussion_april_4_2024/kxzp0pn/)approve() is part of the most common standard token interface, erc20. It has nothing to do with ethereum and is unrelated ethereum upgrades. Tokens can be any contract which implement any interface, or if you want they can all be from the same factory and you can check if they're in that factories mapping of built tokens if you want to be sure what they are.
There have always been tokens which do it differently but erc20 isn't going anywhere, you'll stop noticing it when account abstraction becomes standard. For example on starknet ethereum rollup where account abstraction is default the approve and function call all take place within a single tx. Same can be true with dapps which use dsproxy.
ERC 4337 is going to win and become account abstraction standard. I hate it but it'll be fine. Would rather hard fork and do it properly.
u/Bob-Rossi has an $ARB delegate update and a $HOP delegate update
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bw9oqm/daily_general_discussion_april_5_2024/ky698gc/)ARB DAO updates:
- I voted "For" funding a team to work on a more user-friendly tool to bypass the sequencer when it is down. While admittedly the tech side is probably beyond my scope of knowledge, the broad concept I think is important enough to explore for decentralization purposes.
- I tentatively voted "For" the initial temp check of a $200M gaming fund to target gaming on Arbitrum. It seemed to have a lot of community support, although I indicated some changes I'd like to see if it went to a Tally vote. I'm torn... as I want to fund all types of projects to help Arbitrum grow, however I'm not super sold on blockchain gaming personally and I'd like to see more detail for a proposal of this size. We will see what the changes look like, but I'm probably leaning 'against' if unchanged and went to Tally today.
- I voted "For" Tally support to improve their governance page. All on-chain voting goes through Tally, so I look forward to their ideas and research into improving that process for both delegates but also people looking to delegate. The ideas presented should make it far easier to view delegate information, as well as increase transparency for those who vote. And I look forward to this one a lot!
- I voted "Against" a proposal to continue temporary funding of any project that passed and showed success in the initial STIP phase. This would occur alongside the 3 month LTIP window. This was contentious, with a 61% approval, 31% against vote. My main concern, echo'd by others, was that there was no real data to conclude what qualified as a successful grant round or not. As such, this moves the grantspace backwards as it doesn't incorporate things we learned from the STIP / LTIP rounds. Additionally, I felt that the funds would be better used for a comprehensive and all-inclusive grant round after the 12 week LTIP has been completed. As at some point continually doing temporary, short grant rounds isn't a sustainable option.
I'll also update everyone here that the March delegate incentive program data is out - here. This is a trail program looking at ways to incentive delegates to participate more meaningfully in governance, rewarding active voting and discussion. I actually ended up being rank #1 out of all those who participated! Hopefully those who delegate to me here feel adequately represented :) and know that I try my best to make sure your voting power isn't wasted.
Quick HOP governance update.
I've spent the last few months working on applying to the ARB Long-Term grant program on behalf of Hop, heading up a team with a few other HOP delegates. Council voting results have been released (list of all passing projects here) and HOP has passed the first round! So now it goes to the ARB delegates for vote this week for final approval.
The grant is asking for 500k ARB tokens with the goal of making bridging to the ARB networks cheaper for users. This will be done through fee rebates and liquidity incentives (to reduce slippage), and if it goes live should hopefully help users switch between L2 networks to take advantage of the growing space.
I'll also add, I worked as well to apply for a similar grant through Optimism. Hopefully with similar results.
u/interweaver looks into the different mentalities of people buying crypto
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bx39o4/daily_general_discussion_april_6_2024/kyenvwr/)Like most of the rest of you, I sometimes ponder why Ethereum in recent years tends to perform so... differently... from many other cryptoassets out there.
I keep coming back to this one reason:
Most people today buy crypto to gamble, not to invest.
The market, broadly speaking, is not interested in fundamentals. It sees crypto as a giant casino, where if you're lucky better and faster at reading the trends and moods and narratives, you can become rich overnight, and escape the increasingly dystopian financial state of society. Fundamentals are not the bedrock of deciding what is and isn't a good deal, in this mentality - they are a ball and chain that keeps an asset tethered to reality, when what you actually want is one that is free to ascend into outer space with no pesky P/E ratios or highly technical upgrades to slow understanding and buzz. The more innocent an asset is of any practical use, the less beholden it therefore is to actually needing to support that use, to actually addressing that market, to actually working. If you're not supposed to do anything, you can't fail, and the market can't fail to understand what you do!
By contrast, most of us here would consider ourselves investors. We do care about utility, and we do care about real yields, and we do watch each upgrade with bated breath, and we do follow the discourse on roadmaps and adoption. We care about those pesky fundamentals, because we understand that having a fundamentals-driven thesis is the difference between investing and gambling, and we are not here to gamble. Ethereum, which by this point is deeply embedded in the crypto and web3 ecosystems, and which has, by most metrics, already won the adoption war - that's something we can sink our teeth into, and the fundamentals look pristine. Ethereum is bae for us because in buying it, we can feel secure that we are investing in something that has real underlying value beyond memes and narratives and the attention economy.
Consider the chasm between those two mentalities, and consider that we are in the incredibly distinct minority right now. We're rocking up to a casino with spreadsheets and reams of research. And we're shocked when the degenerates around us take one look at our stodgy "internet of value", our "global settlement layer", our "world computer", and pass it by, because it has won a battle that memecoins are not even trying to fight.
Times are changing, of course. The gamblers that still make up the large majority of the market are soon going to be dwarfed by the massive capital that institutional investment can bring to bear, and make no mistake, those investors of size do do their homework, they do care about fundamentals. They know, like we do, that selling shovels during this gold rush is the best way to profit, and that Ethereum is that shovel, and moreover, that it will grow into the digital equivalent of Manhattan real estate in the fullness of time. How soon these more competent investors will arrive en masse is hard to say, of course - we've been crying out, "the institutions are coming, the institutions are coming" like some kind of latter-day Bilbo Baggins for years now. But I think most would agree that the ETF approvals, whenever they may come, will in many ways herald that advent. The time of fundamentals is not here yet, but it is coming.
So while we all sit here gnashing our teeth and pulling our hair while the markets happily ignore our precious Ethereum, keep in mind that while we're a tiny component of those markets today, what we really are is forerunners.
We're not the last of our kind in a world devoid of reason, raging against the dying of the light.
We're the first.
u/reuptaken thinks something is missing in DeFi
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bx39o4/daily_general_discussion_april_6_2024/kyc6az2/)I have this idea for quite some time now and I'd like to share it with you.
I think that DeFi lacks it's own high level script language. All major systems have SDKs (for advanced developers) and – on the other hand – UI, but nothing in between.
Take Uniswap as an example: you have low level SDK, where you have to deal directly with all the components (and bignumbers, various notations and so on) or pretty clumsy UI (try to move your position to a different range, even if it doesn't require swapping tokens – it takes lot of clicking, waiting and it's almost guaranteed that price will move while you're doing all of this.
The solution would be high level language or set of scripts which would allow to execute all the most important functions of given Defi system by using simple commands. It should eg. understand token symbols, decimal numbers.
So instead of 100+ lines of code or using browser etc you could do:
`movePosition 29133 2000 3000` and after confirmation (which could be disabled) it's done for you.
or, in interactive mode, you could do
`movePosition` and you'd be asked to select from list or type which position, then set range.
Those commands could be executed as scripts. There could be also an event watcher (eg. watching price on some pool) to which you could bind scripts, executed when some conditions are met. Eg. when APY on AAVE is lower than on sDAI, withdraw USDC, convert to DAI using Curve and stake on Spark. Even if not automated it's much easier, faster to execute and probably cheaper.
What do you think about it?
EDIT: If there are some devs who'd like to do such project, please pm me.
u/alexiskef tells us about one of the original cypherpunks
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bxw498/daily_general_discussion_april_7_2024/kyg795p/)Yesterday, u/syzygy00778 posted a link to a comment discussing the identity of Satoshi. Buried in the comments is another link, to an EXCELLENT article titled "Len Sassaman and Satoshi: a Cypherpunk History".
I'll paste the first two paragraphs, and let you read the rest..
"We’ve lost too many hackers to suicide. What if Satoshi was one of them?
Embedded on every single node of the Bitcoin network is an obituary. Hacked into the transaction data, it’s a memorial to Len Sassaman, a man essentially immortalized in the blockchain itself. A fitting tribute in more ways than one.
Len was a true Cypherpunk— equal parts brilliant, irreverent, and idealistic. He devoted his life to defending personal freedoms through cryptography, working as a developer on PGP encryption and open-source privacy technology, as well as an academic cryptographer researching P2P networks under blockchain inventor David Chaum."
u/nixorokish is looking for feedback from all solo/home stakers!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bypiin/daily_general_discussion_april_8_2024/kynxvls/)Any node operators / solo stakers!
EthStaker & Obol are putting out a survey to get to know the landscape of home stakers and solo stakers. The goal is to create publicly available data that accurately represents what home/solo stakers care about, what kind of software and services we mostly use, what we need, etc. The info can be used to advocate for stakers in ongoing research based on their own words. Some questions were contributed by EF researchers themselves
It shouldn't take longer than 15 minutes, most questions are optional, and no data collected can be tied back personally to people (the survey software is FOSS!). We aim to repeat the survey every 6-12 months to get an idea of how the landscape is changing. It's available in English, Mandarin, Spanish & Italian. We'll leave it open for 2-3 weeks depending on volume
The survey is primarily aimed at those running personal validators (anywhere! Cloud services, bare metal services, at home, with a staking-as-a-service provider), minipools, or DVT clusters. If folks have any feedback or suggestions for the next iteration of the survey, would love to hear them! Feel free to direct them to me or to the EthStaker team email (team at ethstaker dot cc)
Survey Link: https://stakinglandscape.limesurvey.net/748278
u/KuDeTa brings us an Aestus update and u/superphiz endorses it
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bzjwc2/daily_general_discussion_april_9_2024/kyumb50/)The Aestus Relay team (that's me, and /u/austonst) have decided to run an experiment in the EigenLayer AVS Operator space. I want to test whether our service and reputation in the MEV-Boost ecosystem as a credibly neutral and solo-staker focussed infrastructure provider, might be of benefit in other domains. I honestly don't know how this is going to work out, but it's an interesting sideline to pursue.
So, as EigenDA hits mainnet today, i'm announcing our intent, and hoping that you might support this by delegating your Native or Liquid Restaking Tokens to us here. Once we hit the required threshold of 320 ETH, we'll begin operations. I expect this to take a few days.
I'll write out a longer post that sets out our motivations and intent, soon. But in brief: it seems clear that the restaking and AVS ecosystem is in danger of rapid domination by staking pools. We hope to make a small difference by leveraging our existing infrastructure in pursuit of decentralisation.
The technology doesn't appear to support it yet, but once it's possible - we'll figure out how to make sure native solo re-stakers don't pay any fees to use our AVS services.
I don't encourage anyone to participate in Eigenlayer restaking because of their stated intention to onboard all validators (that's a form of network capture), but if you DO use Eigenlayer and need to delegate your LSD tokens to a node operator, I'd really encourage you to choose Aestus.
Aestus is made up of two long time members of /r/ethfinance, /u/austonst and /u/KuDeTa. In all of my interactions with them I've found them to be working in the right directions.
https://app.eigenlayer.xyz/operator/0x30eafe8869a1528660a97b7a7e8e2d0037dcb922
u/LogrisTheBard explains how big of a deal fully homomorphic encryption is
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bzjwc2/daily_general_discussion_april_9_2024/kyu8nn2/)So on the EVM call last Friday I went on a rant for a few minutes after JT read my doot. It's so good I'm literally just cleaning it up and transcribing it here:
FHE is complementary to zk-proofs. Zk-proofs say that I did the calculation honestly. We can prove something like I calculated 4+5 honestly and you don't have to go and rerun it yourself to get the answer to that. FHE can be used for many things outside of AI but it's especially valuable for things like DePin.
For example Biometric Authorization. When you want to take your thumbprint or eyeprint and use that as an authorization mechanism. You don't want to give someone your decrypted eyeprint. Today, without FHE, we encrypt your data in transit so the people in the middle can't get it, then we decrypt it on the receiving side, and then the person on the receiving side now has your decrypted eyeprint and can basically just impersonate you. There is fundamentally trust with whomever is the processor of your data.
With FHE, we can give you an encrypted eyeprint, they can check that your eyeprint is actually you, without knowing it's you. They don't have something that can be reused. So they can do authorization without you leaking your public data.
The same thing would be true if I was in healthcare and wanted to make health predictions about you. If I know it's you and you give me all your health data what am I going to do? As a centralized provider I'm going to take that data, I'm going to jot it down, and then I'm going to sell it on the data market to some health insurance companies so they can jack up your rates.
As a user, I want the output of the LLM that tells me what might be wrong with me without the processor of the data being able to jot it down and sell it maliciously against me and add that extra monetization. The same thing would be true in a lot of places. It should be true throughout all of web2. This should explode and become mandatory in certain environments where privacy should be sacrosanct. But in DePin especially, because of permissionless compute, I can't even just say I trust Amazon. I have no idea who the processor of the data is and due to market forces it is going to devolve into the most malicious operator who is able to extract the most monetization out of the data they steal.
So for DePin to be applicable to any area where there is the remotest sense of secrecy or privacy we need to be able to do calculation on an untrusted operator and both prove that they did the calculation honestly (zk-proof) and that they didn't have access to the underlying data (FHE). So you put these two technologies together and you get something that can eat into the margins of centralized compute providers like AWS in a significant way.
To put their margins in perspective, a P5 instance on AWS right now is $92 an hour. I can buy that machine for about $350k. At $92 an hour that's over $800k a year, Amazon is making over 200% APR on the investment of the machine. There is an extraordinarily huge margin there and the effect of that is that the highest grade of compute we have isn't democratized and therefore the apps that require that grade of compute are increasingly being centralized into a few tech oligarchs.
Due to the compute requirements, this basically translates to AI. So we're seeing brick wall around AI being built every time we add another parameter to the LLM. Chat GPT was 1.5B parameters; it takes about 13 gigs of video ram to hold and use the model. Chat GPT 4 is bigger. We're going to go to a trillion parameters. We're going to get to a point where you need to have hundreds of gigs of video ram just to serve on the model and that's not going to be accessible to the average person. The average person isn't going to buy a half million dollar machine from NVidia. We need to be able to provide that high end compute to them at a lower margin than AWS is charging.
That is both an opportunity and a moral imperative of Defi and Depin. We need to make the compute required to access the technologies we are pioneering more democratically accessible before they become permanently locked behind brick wall and only accessible to a few tech oligarchs and used in their most extractive possible way against humanity.
u/Itur_ad_Astra discusses the pros and cons of an ETH issuance change
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1c0dgy2/daily_general_discussion_april_10_2024/kyzga3i/)Today's Bankless discussion came at the perfect time. I had just finished reading u/AElowsson 's analysis and I think I understand more clearly what's really at stake (heh) here. I have to admit my initial reaction when I read the proposal was pretty negative, so in order to help others make up their mind and also keep track of all the arguments that I see, I've made a list of the pros and cons as I've understood them, and explained them as simply as possible. If there are any more that you can think of and ELI5, I'll be happy to add them to the list.
Pros of issuance change:
-
The network stability benefits from an optimal number of validators, as it's more difficult for a huge number of validators to effectively attest blocks fast enough.
-
The ETH that remains in circulation is not superseded by LSTs, which apart from having smart contract, centralization and rugpull risks, make the LST a proxy for ETH. As a result, ETH does not lose its "moneyness" in the eyes of its users.
-
Non-stakers benefit immensely from an issuance reduction. Currently, non-stakers benefit from the burn by having an effective ~0.5% APY, and at the same time, stakers get >3%. However, as more ETH is staked, non-stakers end up not benefiting at all as more and more rewards go to stakers, who at a minimum will be getting 2% at 100% ETH staked.
-
The more ETH is staked, the harder it will be to implement this change. This is due to several reasons, most important of which is that big staking providers have a huge incentive to block it. Lido has already come out in favour of ALL ETH being staked and wanting as much of it to be stETH. What would happen in a post-staked ETH ETF world, when BlackRock lobbies against implementing a change to issuance?
Unclear if issuance change will be a pro or a con:
-
It is not clear how this change will affect the dynamics between solo/hobby stakers and huge staking services. On one hand, there's definitely a limit where solo stakers would exit, and if the staking pools manage to profit though other means, the APY could be very negative and drive all solo stakers out. On the other hand, a market optimized APY leaves less space for staking pools to get a cut of the profits, and if solo stakers eventually have all the ways to profit through other means as big pools, they might be more resistant to low APY. Personally, I would keep a validator up even at half a percent APY, but would not keep my validator up at, say, -5% APY.
-
Fewer ETH staked means less economic security for a network that aims to secure trillions of dollars of assets. However, those fewer ETH can end up having more economic value in the long term due to a more robust and valuable network, so the end result is not immediately clear.
Cons of issuance change:
-
Changing the issuance again will lead to huge amounts of FUD, and ETH losing some of its "moneyness" due to the belief that the EF can unilaterally change the monetary supply.
-
It's definitely not good optics at a time when the SEC is investigating and will be pretty bad for our hopes for an ETF.
-
The issuance can and probably will need to be changed again. The main reason is that there are economics we simply do not understand, like the effect restaking will have on the amount of ETH staked. Also, the amount of validators might go down significantly with EIP-7251 (max-ETH per validator), leading the network to require more validators to be sufficiently decentralized. Finally, there are ideas for future updates that, if implemented, will significanly alter the economics of ETH. MEV-burn is one frequently discussed here, but the Anti-correlation Penalties for validator attestations, which in my understanding disincentivizes big staking providers by implementing heavier penalties when lots of validators lose an attestation at the same time, will most probably also affect the number of validators and the staking pool-solo staker dynamics.
---Personal opinion below---
So here is my view now: I am still mostly on the fence regarding the immediate (see:Pectra) issuance curve change, but at the same time I want to come out in support of an eventual change of the issuance curve towards one where staking much more than 50% of the supply is heavily disincentivized by negative issuance.
The main reason for this is that most of the disadvantages of changing the issuance are short-term troubles, and won't have any effect on the long-term longevity of Ethereum. I'd rather see the project succeed and change the world, than make a bit more money for a year or five. "I'm in it for the tech" might be a meme, but it's also the best way to analyze long-term investments, and it would be much easier for me to leave a project that has ossified before being finished, than it would be to leave because the price dumped. Changing Ethereum's issuance will not only make it a more robust network, but also better money, especially for smaller holders that cannot stake.
ETH needs to keep changing for the better, so don't sacrifice the future to the present. That's what Bitcoin did, and apart from the fact that it will have huge issues eventually, it ended up being only a shadow of what it could be.
Week #61: April 5, 2024
Special guest Don Gossen joins us from Nevermined, a decentralized AI payments protocol.
Upcoming Guests
The morning roundup
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bw9oqm/comment/ky4o1oy/)Ethereum
0.04895
$3275
89,835 hodlers subscribed (+13)
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bveuv9/comment/ky0i2l8/)The meme franchises,
Stupid games with stupid prizes,
Down turn surprises.
Shitpost of the week: u/hblask
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bsv48f/daily_general_discussion_april_1_2024/kxj55i3/)You know the old saying: "Buy ETH on April Fool's Day, $8000 by end of May".
Don't ignore it this time.
u/benido2030 investigates the risk of restaking to the Ethereum network
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bpobg6/daily_general_discussion_march_28_2024/kwxed0y/)So a couple of days I asked if the EF wants to kill or at least tame restaking. I relistened to the UCC episode and here's my understanding.
Restaking is not restaking. At least in the case of Eigenlayer (and I think for now its fair to assume Eigen will be 80%+ of the restaking market) technically any asset could be used as collateral. Just because right now it's validators via eigenpods or staked ETH via LSTs doesn't mean that's the endgame. Actually pure ETH, USD or even other tokens could be used to secure the AVS. This seems to play an important:
If the AVS really requires the restaker to be a validator then the plan is to "smoothen" rewards, which likely (!) means that MEV spikes will be captured and burned/ redistributed. Even though they didn't mention this I guess something like based sequencing where the validator sequences the L2 could be one of these cases. The goal is to make sure big entities aren't in a better position to capture value than solo stakers.
If the AVS is just secured by capital provided, but the security is not connected to a validator and could be done by someone with USD and a computer, then that's a different story.
I still have many questions...
- How does the protocol even know restaking happens?
- Apparently rewards are streamed directly, how can it be captured?
- What is captured/ how is "MEV" defined?
u/superphiz is brainstorming a beacon chain incident severity scale
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bqhysw/daily_general_discussion_march_29_2024/kx3y1k9/)I'm a big fan of the work that /u/hanniabu and EthStaker (/u/nixorokish) have done with https://ethstaker.cc/incidents to document Beacon Chain incidents in a publicly aggregated way. I think this is awesome for transparency and accountability.
I was brainstorming ways that it might be improved, and I think it could be helpful to convert this page to a table and include a severity scale. Here's an idea what that might look like, and I think it would be awesome for other people to take that apart.
I'm never good with these scales, I wonder if the most severe incidents should have higher or lower incidents. This example is ranked with lower severity = lower higher number. I also think it's good to leave room for a 10 point scale and realize that there may be shuffling over time.
ALSO, I think it may be useful to indicate that different events can trigger the same level of severity, as I've tried to illustrate below.
Note that this is a very first draft and it would need a ton of editing by others to be useful.
Beacon chain incident severity scale:
Minor
Severity 10 - Minority client issue that caused that client to miss attestations, participation above 95%, no missed slot.
Severity 9 - A client or multi-client issue causes participation to drop between 85% and 95%, no more than 1 consecutive missed slot.
Severity 8 - A client or multi-client issue that causes participation to drop between 66% and 85%, no more than 1 consecutive missed slot.
Medium
Severity 7 - A beacon chain consensus or execution client becomes a majority client (greater than 66% use)
Severity 6 - more than 1 consecutive missed slot; or any entity exceeds 33% of validators
Severity 5 -
Major
Severity 4 - Any entity exceeds 50% of validators
Severity 3 -
Severity 2 - No transactions were processed on the beacon chain for < 1 hour
Extreme
Severity 1 - No transactions were processed on the beacon chain for > 1 hour; An entity exceeds 66% of validators
u/KuDeTa explains why many block relays are closed source
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1braopv/daily_general_discussion_march_30_2024/kx9llpt/)To monetise their infrastructure, relays need a performance edge - which they can't possibly maintain if everything is open source. So to some extent, competing at all necessitates competing in private. At the moment, ultrasound are running a fee delta / bid adjustment experiment in which they try to capture the difference between the highest and second highest bids - effectively depriving the validator of it. By doing so, they can take a fee - but also break some of the natural resilience of the mev-boost system - as bids are now unique to their relay. As i understand things, they also have a closed source rust implementation of the relay codebase, and have done some work with reth to try and improve bid simulation performance (vs geth). Those are the broad strokes, and you'll see that they do open source some of their core thinking.
Frankly, it's very difficult to work out exactly who is running what code, and what is clear is that none of the relays (including Aestus - though all our code is opensource) are vanilla MEV-Boost anymore, except Flashbots. /u/benido asked me elsewhere if this can't also be seen as a "good" thing. Judge for yourselves based on the recent incidents. I would much rather find a way to incentivise relays (until we can get rid of them entirely) such that they want and need to work together. An upfront fee is probably more healthy. However, we should also face facts: the validator set is pretty mercenary and convincing Coinbase, LIDO and others to e.g. only use open source relays seems unlikely to happen.
To make matters even more interesting, we seem to be entering the early stages of a race to compete on timing. Bloxroute proudly boast they are making validators who sign up to their gateway an additional 6.4% of MEV income. Where does that come from? The next proposing validator (not using their service). I haven't managed to get to the bottom of whether other relays (including US) are yet doing this, but i wouldn't be surprised if they are.
I've spent time with people from across the MEV (relay/builder/searcher) ecosystem at various events, and i want to underline that while it's somewhat tempting and human to try and reduce this to a question of individual/entity behaviour or ethics, threatening everyone with the ethereum police really misses the point entirely. The incentives are broken and the competition increases fragility. Don't hate the player - hate the game.
u/mango_sake updates their exit strategy app
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bs2c90/daily_general_discussion_march_31_2024/kxd67b6/)Another update!
After y'all crushed my app for planning your exit strategy, I used the weekend to get it on a proper hosting plan.
It's live on kollit.ai now!
Thousands of people entered in a matter of a day, i utterly speechless and so greatful you guys found my app useful!
For the folks who missed it:
I made an exit strategy planner using game theory. It's called Kollit - you call the prices, enter your risk tolerance and a few more optional things and the app will spit out an exit strategy that mathematically minimizing your total regret, be it regret of selling early or regret of waiting for a higher price that never comes. I think it's really cool and im super excited to hear what you have to say! If you have any questions or suggestions please dont hesitate :)
u/AElowsson introduces the topic of the day and don't skip on the amazing replies which are too numerous to doot
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bsv48f/daily_general_discussion_april_1_2024/kxji2a6/)Here is a long-form "EIP research post" on my reward curve with tempered issuance.
u/impliedpotential3497, u/KuDeTa, u/asdafari12, and u/pa7x1 discuss protocol proposals
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bsv48f/daily_general_discussion_april_1_2024/kxlctc4/)There shouldn't be any significant issuance or monetary policy change unless the issue is something so obvious and objectively agreeable or existential already. The reasons for any significant changes to issuance now seem to be for highly subjective reasons. The threat to centralization comes much more from some central body trying to tweak monetary policy, not from the market, institutions, individual users, and the broader ecosystem naturally figuring itself out. Even if only a small percentage of ETH is in circulation in the future then so be it... Anyone drumming up ideas for changes to monetary policy right now should rather maybe consider simplying user experience for solo stakers or try to educate the masses on holding or using ETH the hard asset. Even advocating to LST's and the like to follow some kind of better defined framework would be a better approach. There are so many other ways to address subjective issues like the ones being brought up imo. Monetary policy changes are like the absolute last resort.
There are good arguments on both sides of the issuance debate. I don’t, however, believe consistency of monetary policy is a good argument in favour of doing nothing. It’s naive to imagine we could have ever designed the yield curve correctly the first time around, given MEV, LSTs and restaking had yet to appear. It would therefore be hubris to suggest that any changes we make now will ever be considered final, given all the unknown unknowns. Crypto just moves too quickly. The capacity for evolution and adaptation is a core strength of the ethereum community and we should embrace it to stay ahead of the competition.
Some things I believe are true. I could be wrong on some.
- The large validator size is growing quickly, in part thanks to Eigenlayer, and it is becoming a huge problem for the clients to handle. This is the main reason the EF wants to limit issuance.
- The current reward of 3% is not enough to encourage solo stakers, let alone half of that, which is what the new EF proposal would mean.
- Solo staking is too difficult. Since I started early 2020, not much has changed (officially). It's still the same arcane terminal commands + you now "have" to run MEV boost too. Ethdocker seems awesome, I trust the guy that made it but would have liked to see something more "official" and ideally at staking release rather than two years later. I think it would have had better penetration.
- More should have been done to incentivize solo stakers financially. More could have been done as well. We have seen airdrops to solo stakers and even incentivized smoothing pools.
- The community is overall fine with how much ETH we pay to validators today and our issuance. We even have deflation.
- I mostly trust the EF to know better but I don't want anything rushed, this shouldn't come in the next fork imo. Earliest is like a year, but then it looks to be too late in regards to slowing the validator growth rate, we need something now.
For me this is the best take on the issuance reduction so far: https://warpcast.com/orangesamus.eth/0x7668549c
My thoughts on issuance reduction:
To target < 100% staked ETH you assume:
- There is some yield “x%” where the market finds it irrational to take on the risks/opportunity costs of even delegating to someone else to stake
- Issuance curve is chosen such that we cross below x% before we get to 100% staked ETH
The problem is that I think:
- There is also some nominal yield “y%” that makes it irrational to be a solo or home staker after you get any lower than y%
And until you find a way to make solo/home staking more competitive relative to centralized alternatives:
- y% will always be greater than x%
So I think the worst case scenario is the one that we get an issuance curve that leads to:
- crossing below y% (no longer rational to solo/home stake)
- And even worse: we are still > x% even at 100% ETH staked, meaning we didn’t accomplish our primary goal, and our validator set is highly centralized
Even if we choose a good x% and land at less than 100% staked ETH, we could still end well below y% and our validator set may end up highly centralized.
I’d rather Ethereum “over pay” for a robust validator set in the short term, than “under pay” and end up without a robust validator set
I think we should prioritize research to make decentralized staking more competitive, like ideas shown below:
If solo staking equilibrium yield is lower than pooled staking equilibrium yield. Then we must overpay issuance to ensure solo stakers can exist, otherwise the network will become strongly centralized.
Another argument on top of this one, whatever the optimal issuance curve is (if there is even one), we must approach it from above. Because if we overtighten we will end up having to raise issuance. And this creates a very bad precedent that will likely erode any monetary credibility Ethereum may have.
u/LogrisTheBard explains the potential of Fully Homomorphic Encryption
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1buk90w/daily_general_discussion_april_3_2024/kxvmtnr/)A limitation of permissionless execution for as long as I've been around has been that everything is necessarily public. We use mixers on occasion to obfuscate fund movements but the underlying program and underlying data for smart contracts is always public. If there's a chain adjacent service like an Oracle, everything about its function is public. If I wanted to use a smart contract or a keeper to serve some data for me conditionally on authorization I end up having to use a centralized service at some point to issue a decryption key. Otherwise whomever wants the data could simply join as a data provider, download everything, and then exit without paying for the data. The root problem is just that if a system is permissionless then it can't be entrusted with secrets.
This has become an acute pain point for AI x crypto applications recently. We can't use DePin to train on private data or to serve answers from private models. However, there's some math magic just on the fringe of development at the moment that could blow this space open: zk-proofs + fully homomorphic encryption (FHE)1.
Here's an ELI5: I want you to add two numbers for me but I don't want you to know which numbers I'm adding. Let's say I want the answer to 1+1. So I add a secret number known to me but not to you to each input, let's say 3 and 4, and I give you the problem 4+5. You calculate 9. To get the decrypted answer I just subtract the sum of the secret numbers in my input from your answer: 9-(3+4)=2. This looks silly in the reductive case but makes a lot more sense as the number operators (+, -, *, /) and operations in the calculation grows. Today, there are workable FHE encodings that can support any combination of multiplication and addition on an encrypted space. This is promising because as it turns out neural nets are nothing but a very large combination of simple arithmetic operations...
Hence a FHE encoded neural net can potentially be run on DePin infrastructure while protecting property rights to the underlying model. Once we see some of the initial projects like zama, privasea, and based.ai prove out this concept and it becomes more widely understood the full applications of FHE in crypto are going to be huge. I highly suggest Rabbit Holing on this one for a few hours.
u/dondochaka share a cool new DAO product they created for Reddit users!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1buk90w/daily_general_discussion_april_3_2024/kxvovul/)The startup I work for just shipped https://www.rdatadao.org. Without sharing my own opinion or involvement, I'm curious what impression it leaves you all with...
Warning: It was realized this also exports your DMs.u/dondochaka is bringing this up with the team.
Week #60: March 29, 2024
Special guest Ram Ahluwalia, CFA and CEO of Lumida Wealth, a digitally native, SEC registered investment advisor specializing in alternative investments and digital assets.
Upcoming Guests
- April 5 - Don Gossen of Nevermined
- April 12th - Paul Brody of EY and president of EEA
- April 19 - SwagtimusPrime of Scroll
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bqhysw/comment/kx2p2ky/)Ethereum
$3570
0.07
561 days since The Merge
89,770 hodlers subscribed (+4)
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bpobg6/comment/kx14ejq/)Jailed FTX bro,
It's six halving in a row,
Raise and fall below.
Choda time!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bpobg6/comment/kx0d2q9/)༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ ETH TAKE MY ENERGY ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Shitpost of the week: u/Tricky_Troll
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bour0p/comment/kwwbrx9/)Is "you don't have enough points" the new "you don't have enough ETH"?
u/aaqy explains why they aren't voting to increase the gas limit
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bjzmh0/daily_general_discussion_march_21_2024/kvv9es0/)Hey guys. As a genesis solo validator, I would like to share with you the reasons why I oppose the increase in block size at the present time.
- It is pointless. We are not going to attract new users or new use cases by simply reducing fees for a very limited time. No one is going to consider using Ethereum because a transaction costs $4 instead of $5. I understand it is annoying to hear the same complaints over high fees over and over again, but those complaints are not going to be tamed with a fee reduction that would anyway last very little. As an example, the last hard fork has indeed reduced fees on L1 more or less on the same scale that a block increase would do, but almost no one noticed.
- It is not sufficiently tested and could be dangerous, especially for small validators. When reasons for increasing size are cited, reference is usually made to disk size, but other more important factors for small operations are bandwidth, data-rate limits, computational capacity or ram installed. Increasing the block size increases resources and could expose small validators to spam attacks that cause them to lose their turn and thus allow an attacker to steal rewards or MEV from them.
- It could hurt L2 scaling plans. The last hard fork allowed Ethereum L2s to start competing with more centralized alternative L1s. However, even with 3 blobs per block the tps we are seeing are very low with respect to for example Solana, whose transactions per second are close to 1000. An increase in the number of blobs can be very significant to achieve equivalent capacity. This improvement, in contrast to a limited increase in block size, can indeed attract new users, developers and use cases, since the chosen L2 could offer the same tps as L1 alternatives, but with the added security provided by the Ethereum network, as well as compatibility with existing tools and ease of development. In short: the space we would lose by increasing the block size in a rush might be needed in the future to increase blob capacity.
Therefore, I think this is not the right time to increase the block size. I think we should wait until Ethereum L2s have reached a point where they can compete with alternative L1s in terms of capacity and the cases where complex blocks can cause small validators to miss blocks have been thoroughly tested and eliminated.
u/_WebOfTrust is grateful for this amazing community
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bmdq2z/daily_general_discussion_march_24_2024/kwe3c59/)I recently read Polynya's latest blog, which reminded me of how grateful I am to be a part of this group. X is nothing but a shitshow; Farcaster looks promising, but the conversation is fragmented. The only place where the comment-to-quality ratio is high is here, with a wholesome bunch of strangers discussing the whole ecosystem and offering help without prejudice. It's a rare find in the current market, especially now that meme mania seems to be leading the charge.
Even beyond this group, some fellow members have offered their guidance and support. MinimalGravitas, my dude, if it weren't for your kind words, I would have left the DAO in '22. Do you know, a fellow member even offered me their NUC, its up and running. Every time I look at it, I forget the gloom I see elsewhere, it gives me hope. This motivation to run a node, even if it's non-staking, was inspired by Nixo's tweet. Not directly, but Logris has taught me valuable lessons through his well-explained comments. Whether on vacation or gone camping, no worries, Tricky got you covered with doots when you're back. Benido and Hanni have written extensively on different topics, from DAO to LST to client diversity. And the list goes on... all that without an expectation of any financial return.
Sometime we take things for granted or we are unaware of impact of our action but not today, today I want to show my gratitude and thank you all for contributing to this forum. Even if I have nothing to say, I ready the daily and learn something from it and I am greatful for that.
u/pa7x1 does some L2 education and FUD busting
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bksave/daily_general_discussion_march_22_2024/kw3ngor/)L2beat.com does an amazing job at explaining the trade-offs in detail. L2s are definitely not web2 technology. In fact, it's so novel that they are still being built, that's why they have some amount of training wheels and safety guards at the moment.
The first thing to observe is that you can give up decentralization for an L2 as long as some protections are guaranteed to the user programmatically. It's OK for a rollup operator to run the rollup themselves, it may even be permissioned, it may even be censored. And that's OK as long as you can always escape hatch with your assets to the L1. And the analogy I would use here is that this is the exact same thing that happens with private businesses. A restaurant doesn't have to serve you, they may reserve the right to not have you as a customer sometimes for trivialities like dress-code. A web forum may ban you. And that's fine because you can go anywhere else. If you are unhappy with the rollup you get your stuff and go somewhere else. Your fundamental rights are preserved in the public space, the L1 is the public space. And the L1 is permissionless and censorship-resistant so you can be sure there will be somewhere else to go.
Here is an example of how this works in Arbitrum: https://l2beat.com/scaling/projects/arbitrum#risk-analysis
Sequencer failure Self sequence
In the event of a sequencer failure, users can force transactions to be included in the project’s chain by sending them to L1. There is a 1d delay on this operation. Proposer failure Self propose
Anyone can become a Proposer after 6d 8h of inactivity from the currently whitelisted Proposers.
Even if Arbitrum went for the ultimate censorship, turning off their rollup, you would be able to use the L1 and escape hatch.
Bitcoin maxis have been parroting a never ending stream of FUD arguments for years, systematically being proven wrong and when that happens instead of recognizing their mistake they move to new FUD arguments. Facts be damned. I would recommend updating your bayesian priors taking their track-record into account.
u/OkDragonfruit1929 lists the few ways which may result in failure for Ethereum
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bksave/daily_general_discussion_march_22_2024/kw43pjp/)I am dealing with internalizing the hate toward Ethereum, but am also trying to prevent myself being blinded by my own bias.
One trap that people often fall into is refusing to acknowledge any scenario where their beliefs, convictions, or ideals could ever be "wrong".
As a result, I am compiling a list of things which would indicate to me that I was wrong about Ethereum. That Ethereum was a failed experiment doomed due to irreparable flaws. Of the 4 listed here, any one of the first 3 coming true I think would be enough for me to concede the "death of ETH".
- Unresolvable security vulnerabilities causing finanacial losses, undermining trust in Ethereum's security model. This could include supermajority bugs causing a chain split, or repeated successful attacks against the network.
- If Ethereum's development or governance becomes heavily centralized, contradicting its ethos of decentralization.
- A breakdown in the Ethereum community, whether due to internal conflicts, disillusionment with the project's direction, or a mass migration to other projects, could severely impact the development and support of the platform.
- To a lessor extent, I would also concede that regulatory actions against Ethereum specifically, or decentralized platforms in general, could be a huge blow to ethereum's vision as the settlement layer for the world's finance and uninteruptable web3. I say this would prove ethereum's "failure" in my mind to a lessor extent than the other scenarios I listed here, because even if the governments of the world put aside their differences to all agree to attack ethereum or restrict it, ethereum would never truly die. It would simply go underground. It would be vastly less profitable, but it would not disappear entirely.
For myself, and hopefully some of you here who are deeply invested in Ethereum's success, these scenarios would likely need to be demonstrable, systemic, and irreparable to convince us that Ethereum was a failed experiment.
u/hereimalive shares Vitalik's comments on getting Ethereum ready for real world adoption
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bll5sr/daily_general_discussion_march_23_2024/kw6vsft/)What you think about Vitalik 5 year time-frame for Ethereum to prove its ready for mainstream real world adoption?
https://thedefiant.io/vitalik-says-ethereum-must-achieve-mainstream-adoption-within-five-years
Despite the cc subreddit pushing a negative narrative, it seems like Vitalik is actually bullish.
"I expect Ethereum to be a very leading player in helping to make stablecoin accessible to people in a way that actually is open, actually is decentralized, and actually doesn’t require trusting fragile third-parties.”
Also, improvements to be able to run a node (not sure if validators but probably) without the need for a lot of storage space. zk-SNARKs would help us move from our staking rigs to just a phone/very light processing on a computer.
“With Verkle Trees, as a node, you would not have to store the state locally. And with EIP-4444: History Expiry, you would not have to store most of the history locally,” Buterin said. “The amount of data that you would need to be a node would decrease from multiple terabytes to... being able to run a node in RAM.”
“In the long term, running a node will feel like… a few very simple computations that will be very easy to do as a background process on any computer, maybe even a phone, even inside a browser,” Buterin said. “There’s a pre-existing technology roadmap to get to that point.”
u/strawdar explains why ETH staking is in 32 ETH chunks
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bll5sr/daily_general_discussion_march_23_2024/kw9opzu/)With EIP-7251/MaxEB coming I was curious why the beacon chain did not launch this way in the first place. It has an interesting backstory.
From the EIP itself:
The limit on the MAX_EFFECTIVE_BALANCE is technical debt from the original sharding design, in which subcommittees (not the attesting committee but the committee calculated in is_aggregator) needed to be majority honest. As a result, keeping the weights of subcommittee members approximately equal reduced the risk of a single large validator containing too much influence. Under the current design, these subcommittees are only used for attestation aggregation, and thus only have a 1/N honesty assumption.
u/asdafari12 questions the magnitude of the benefit of increasing maximum validator balances while u/interweaver delivers the answer
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bmdq2z/daily_general_discussion_march_24_2024/kwbl7rg/)maxeb is now planned for the next hard fork. This will remove the 32e max limit for validators, greatly reducing bandwidth consumption for stakers. - eric.eth https://twitter.com/econoar/status/1770836409848332554
Will maxeb really reduce bandwidth greatly? Only if the whales with thousands of validators actually consolidate to big validators instead of many small ones, something that is yet to be seen. You could argue that they don't want to have 3200 ETH validators as the impact of a bug would be 100x bigger. It would lower Ethereum protocol risk though so should be in their best interest.
It seems unlikely to me that we will lower the number of validators by 50-75%, which is what I would consider greatly reducing consumption. More likely we will drop by some 10-30%, so not really making a big difference in terms of bandwidth.
This is almost certainly referring to attestation subnets.
For each validator a solo staker has (up to 64), they have to subscribe to a new attestation subnet, with all the gossip and increased traffic that causes.
If that solo staker consolidates their validators under maxEB, they could go back down to a single attestation subnet, reducing bandwidth usage significantly.
u/FrenktheTank shares the great combo of Paul Brody and the EEA
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bn6io6/daily_general_discussion_march_25_2024/kwgb404/)On my LinkedIn feed I saw that Paul Brody just got appointed as Chairman of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance. Curious as to what his plans are to speed up enterprise adopotion.
u/dentonnn is grateful for this community
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bo0lmo/daily_general_discussion_march_26_2024/kwmd1kd/)Just wanted to amplify u/_WebOfTrust post from 2 days ago... what an awesome community this is. I am a relatively late comer into the community.
Thank you all for consistency sharing your knowledge with internet anons like me. I've learnt more from this sub than any other place on the internet. I literally got a job offer because I dove into MEV because of the daily doots posts about it consistently throughout the past few years (I didn't take the offer in the end).
Your selfless sharing has consequences, and I my career trajectory is one of them.
Other than that this year has been transformative for me career-wise (got back in the crypto industry after a stint in fintech) and personally as an artist (did my first solo exhibition yay!). Going to ETH Denver for the first time and meeting u/jtnichol and other folk was the most wholesome experience I've had in a long long time.
I work on consumer side of crypto, specifically in games and 99% of the ppl are talking about the casino/degen aspect of crypto, I think they are firmly in the camp of "it's just how it is" , and perfectly captures what polyna's sentiment that
"this evil in crypto is banal and normalized. This has become the identity of crypto - sure, some useful stuff, but mostly just infested with scams and absolute degeneracy."
Despite the mis-aligned incentives, greed, grift in the space, I don't see any other system that can even attempt to fix the problems we face at scale. I don't know what the answer is, but I believe it starts with places like ethfinance, that can influence the culture of the ecosystem.
I also finally got my EVM today yay.
u/dataalways investigates client diversity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bo0lmo/daily_general_discussion_march_26_2024/kwp0jmb/)It's not a topic I look at much, or one that I plan to spend much more time on, but I spent my morning trying to fill in some knowledge gaps about execution layer clients this morning. Most of you guys rely on supermajority.info, but obviously there are some unknowns since not all proposer sets have publicly stated their client usage (Binance, Kraken, OKX, Bitcoin Suisse, etc.).
The idea is that even though most blocks are built through PBS, every proposer still has a small share of locally built blocks (min-bid reversions, network latency delaying payloads from relays, local blocks being more valuable than PBS if there isn't much MEV during the block, etc.) and for those subsets of blocks we can look at the extra_data encoded on-chain to tag what clients proposers are using.
Part of the issue with this methodology is that besu and erigon don't actually embed extra_data so the field is blank, and at the same time there are some MEV builders who try to stay anonymous and don't embed data, so we can only cleanly tag geth and Nethermind, and then we need to check vs off-chain MEV data to see if the empty data blocks are from anonymous MEV builders or from one of besu/erigon.
On top of that, there's occasionally been MEV builders using the Nethermind tag that briefly crop up. I think this is just from misconfigurations because they go away pretty quick, but it adds a bit of noise to the data. Basically the methodology is a bit of a mess.
As a quick summary:
- Binance is 100% geth.
- Kraken seems to use multiple execution clients but tagging what share is kind of hard. Could be 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 or maybe 1/2 geth, 1/4 nethermind, 1/4 besu or erigon.
- OKX is majority geth. They seem to use a bit of Nethermind (and maybe a little bit of besu/erigon), but the counts are really low. OKX is a pretty reliable proposer, so they don't have many local blocks.
- Bitcoin Suisse is 100% geth.
The data is here for anyone that wants a peak:
u/not-ngmi rounds up all of the many pieces of ETF news from the day
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bour0p/daily_general_discussion_march_27_2024/kwuzig1/)The CFTC refers to ETH as a commodity in their KuCoin complaint.
On the same day, courts side with SEC on the staking issue in Coinbase case.
Meanwhile, Fidelity files S-1 form for spot Ethereum ETF with staking included.
Within 24hrs, Larry Fink says on Fox News that if ETH were designated as a security, that wouldn’t be deleterious to the approval of an ETF.
Perhaps spot ETH is a commodity (CFTC regulated), but staked ETH is a security (SEC regulated).
Prediction: Staked ETH ETF approved before spot ETH ETF.
u/pbrody is looking to catch up with EthFinanciers like YOU this year!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bo0lmo/daily_general_discussion_march_26_2024/kwn693q/)Where are people going to be the next few weeks? Is there some way to share where we will be?
I’m headed to:
- Bucharest - March 30/31 - EthBucharest/Romania
- London - April 16-18, EY Blockchain Summit
- Dubai - April 19,20 —> Token 2049
- Dubai - April 20th —> How To DAO
- Brussels - July 8-12 - EthCC
- New York - Sept 30-Oct 2 - Messari MainNet
- Bangkok - November 11-16 - DevCon
Who am I going to see where?
Week #59: March 22, 2024
Special guest Adam Blumberg of Interaxis. Adam is a Certified Financial Planner, and a former Registered Investment Advisor. He co-founded Interaxis in 2019 to educate advisors and investors on digital assets and decentralized finance. His Interaxis YouTube channel is viewed by thousands across the globe. He is a regular contributor to Coindesk's Crypto For Advisors and was featured on Bloomberg TV and Blockworks.
Upcoming Guests
- March 29 - Ram Ahluwalia CFA and CEO of Lumida Wealth
- April 5 - Don Gossen of Nevermined
- April 12 - SwagtimusPrime of Scroll
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bksave/comment/kw0bgmg/)Ethereum
89,714 hodlers subscribed (+11)
$3517
0.0528
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bf7318/comment/kv2duzh/)Good code for your peers,
Great discussions and some beers,
Blockchain pioneers.
Choda time!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bjzmh0/comment/kvwj0we/)༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ ETH TAKE MY ENERGY ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Shitpost of the week: u/ev1501
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bj6k75/daily_general_discussion_march_20_2024/kvr1s7s/)I wish the ETF passes and gets pushed down all the haters throats like bad medicine.
In May, when SEC nods in grace,
ETH ETF takes its rightful place.
Skeptics scowl, in disbelief they stare,
As Ethereum soars, slicing through despair.
"Impossible!" they cried, their words so cold,
Yet forward moves the future, bold.
Their doubts, like shadows, quickly flee,
As ETH ascends, for all to see.
The haters cope, their voices dim,
Against the tide, their chances slim.
For in this dance of digital fate,
Ethereum's rise, they can't abate.
So let them cope, let them despair,
While Ethereum's light fills the air.
For in the end, it's clear to see,
The SEC's nod sets Ethereum free.
u/haurog highlights a post about Optimism's new fee structure
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bf7318/daily_general_discussion_march_15_2024/kuyoc9h/)It might have gone under in yesterdays daily, but u/KnowNoShade posted a very interesting link about the new fee structure on Optimism and why they had such a huge reduction in cost after the Dencun hardfork. Blobs alone could not have reduced the fees by that much. What optimism did in addition was that Optimism started to consider priority fees in their fee calculation. The base fee can be close to 0 and optimism still makes enough money through the priority fee. Optimism does not directly subsidize transactions, but the way they calculate the transactions and set average gas usage for the base fee to increase it essentially means that the actors which pay a high priority fee are indirectly subsidizing the fees for the other users. And apparently there are enough users paying a high priority fee which makes OP chains still profitable. Quite interesting to be honest. According Ryan Berckmans tweet OP Mainnet and Base still make enough money through priority fees. I am not sure if this is also true for Zora as I would expect not too many people pay a priority fee there, I might be wrong there though. Overall, I think it is quite interesting how Dencun now has kicked off a rollup fee competition. Apparently arbitrum will also improve their fees soon.
u/Bob-Rossi has some ARB delegate updates
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bf7318/daily_general_discussion_march_15_2024/kuznmae/)Few more ARB DAO updates beyond what I brought up a few days ago, more personal to what I've been up to if anyone is curious. (As well as open to feedback before I go 'live' with one of these items).
Late to the party, but ARB did release their 2023 Transparency Reporting (https://docs.arbit rum.foundation/foundation-documents#transparency-reports). If anyone wants to give it a read there is some good things too look at, although I will note page 11 might be my favorite :). And please note that 100% of the work was done by Questbook, I was just there becase I posted it to Tally / Snapshot. Just having a "LeonardoDeCapriopointsatthetv" moment.
I'll admit this sort of came up in January and then I got busy so it got pushed aside once Feb rolled around, but I'm probably going to start working towards it now that I have the time... I'm going to try to get some of ARB's council election processes standardized. More info here (https://forum.arbit rum.foundation/t/rfc-create-a-standardized-guideline-for-non-security-council-elections/20915). Basically, these different councils have elections and the process isn't very standard as different people are running the programs each time. I think that detracts from how effective these elections can be. My thought is that a minimum there is a lot of community support for "Shielded" voting (results hidden until completion). So I'm hoping at least that will get support, as I'm breaking it our into three categories:
- Mandating certain election types be used to avoid common pitfalls with less effective voting methods.
- Mandating "Shielded" voting, as there are too many ways to game the election if results are public as they go along.
- Mandating some type of minimum period for applicants to apply for roles to ensure we can get the best possible field possible.
u/Sparta89 covers the fee flippening while u/pa7x1 explains why Ethereum is only just getting started
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bfzcrp/daily_general_discussion_march_16_2024/kv5ovfc/)Solana fees have spiked and are currently ~4X higher than most L2 fees. The Solana low fee narrative is dying.
Solana average fee (24 hours): ~$0.048
Optimism/Starknet average fee (24 hours): ~$0.01
Sources:
And with some very rough numbers L2s may scale 3x their use of blobspace without even raising the blob fee. Currently the network is averaging 1 blob per block. So until it reaches 3 or more blobs per block there won't be actual pressure on the blob fee. https://dune.com/hildobby/blobs
According to l2beat the L2s did yesterday 133 tps. A factor of x3 will place it around 400 tps. Solana seems to do around 500 tps. https://realtps.net/
With this rough numbers Ethereum seems to have beaten in scalability Solana. Can manage same order of magnitude tps but cheaper. But unlike Solana it has an actual roadmap to keep scaling:
- Blobspace can be increased trivially and it will be increased when demand is there.
- With some tweaks to calldata pricing we will likely increase gas space very soon because the current gas limit is very conservative.
- Blobs have already reduced around 33% the state growth rate. And stateless Ethereum is in the works.
- Full danksharding provides a credible roadmap to scale tps by multiple orders of magnitude.
All that without having to give up on decentralization.
u/BuyETHorDAI shares a futuristic Ethereum demo
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bfzcrp/daily_general_discussion_march_16_2024/kv5y4n0/)I saw a presentation at EthDenver that used a mock dapp from the future, showing what the UX would be like if we had the complete roadmap. In this case it was for buying and selling cars and had assumptions baked in like digital identity, smart wallet, etc.. I really like these types of demos and would be cool to see more. This is the video I'm talking about: https://youtu.be/TrLbTglwzXg
u/vvpan mulls over decentralisation
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bgqm1m/daily_general_discussion_march_17_2024/kvbn81r/)"Decentralization" is a complicated term. In crypto we usually see the system as decentralized based on criteria like "how many nodes have to collude to censor the system" or "how many nodes need to be taken out for the system to fail" or "how difficult it is for a single entity to take over governance". But there is a more traditional meaning for decentralization, a pre-digital one, which defines it not as a large system but many local ones and this is where blockchain has some shortcomings.
I am on this subreddit for the blockchain ideologies that resonate with me (and ma bags, of course). But I would also say that being "all in" is not great. Take Bitcoin maxis. The idea that all the complexity of expression and exchange of value should be scorched and replaced by a single system derived from a single limited resource (which at the onset has every uneven distribution) to me is nothing short of fascist. That idea is despotic and anti-human in the sense that it deprives us (you know, the people who are supposed to be benefitting) from the ability to decide how we want to express human relationships.
Now fans of smart contract chains (say Ethereum) are not Bitcoin maxis at all. Smart contracts are foundation for building any kind of system on top of it. In case of Ethereum experimentation and possibility of human expression (new forms of value, new forms of organization, new forms of interaction) are at the core of the ethos. Yet a blockchain network is still a single system, with one governance, with one limited-supply token, requiring electricity and internet, insecure and with potential middlemen. That said I think what is actually a corollary to Ethereum ethos is cherishing of the good meat-space things - not everything needs to be onchain, digital has security limitations, organization comes in many forms, non-digital governance is important.
u/5quat summarises the EtherFi airdrop
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bgqm1m/daily_general_discussion_march_17_2024/kvd7a3f/)High level summary
- We listened to our community and increased our token allocation by over 10M tokens, representing an additional 1% of total supply
- For Season 1, in total we're giving away 68M tokens, representing 6.8% of supply
- The average size of airdrop each user received was 575 tokens, the median was 175 tokens
- The largest allocation was for approximately 3M tokens, this individual deposited $480M during the Final Countdown campaign
- Deposits during the Final Countdown campaign resulted in an increase of 7.7M tokens for everyone else!
Season 1 Token Allocation: 90% to stakers 6% to partners 4% to Early Adopters (fan NFT Holders and EAP participants) Stakers received a proportional share of the 90% (59M tokens), the distribution was linear but skewed in favor of smaller stakers Bottom 50% of wallets contributed 1.8% of TVL and received 18% of token allocation Top 10% of wallets contributed 88% of TVL, and received 65% of token allocation Eligibility Rules: What were the rules to be eligible? Anyone who earned more than 1000 points or more from staking 1,000 points was equivalent to staking 1 ETH for 1 day, or staking 0.1 ETH for 10 days Holders of fan NFTs received 430 tokens for each NFT Participating solo-stakers in Operation Solo Staker received 4200 tokens Badge holders and referrers received boosted allocation Specifically who wasn’t eligible? Users with less than 1000 points from staking activity, (i.e. if a users points came entirely from badges, they didn’t get an airdrop) Users who didn't not transition out of the EAP
u/shiftli reminds us of a growing scam to watch out for
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bgqm1m/daily_general_discussion_march_17_2024/kvcgbdp/)Appears to be wallet running an "address poisoning" scam:
Scammer -> new wallet -> victim
The scammer sends a small amount of eth dust to a newly created wallet, which sends it to the victim. The new wallet W* is created to have the same first and last four characters in the address as an address W the victim transacted with recently.
The idea is that the victim in a future transaction copies the target address from the transaction history and because of the address similarity takes the scammer-controlled wallet W* instead of the legit wallet W.
Good catch!
u/cryptrd285 shares another L for the SEC
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bhjqu7/daily_general_discussion_march_18_2024/kvhqw4i/)SEC absolutely got bodied here. It should help with ETH ETF filing, I would think. I am sure SEC doesn't want another embrassment
https://twitter.com/iampaulgrewal/status/1769835308559032608
"For the reasons explained below, the court imposes sanctions against the Commission for bad faith conduct in obtaining, maintaining, and defending the TRO, and denies the Commission’s Motion to Dismiss without prejudice to refile in accordance with the District of Utah’s Local Rules.The Commission’s above-discussed conduct constitutes a gross abuse of the power entrusted to it by Congress and substantially undermined the integrity of these proceedings and the judicial process."
u/Bob-Rossi has a HOP governance update
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bhjqu7/daily_general_discussion_march_18_2024/kvfvj5b/)A quick HOP governance update. Although honestly it's a pretty light one as ultimately most votes over the last few months have been fairly standard DAO things. To run through a quick list (https://snapshot.org/#/hop.eth):
- Vote "For" operational items - Community Multisig Refill (3), retroactive pay for moderators and renewal of the delegative incentivization trails
- Vote "For" AMM Incentives to new pairs that came to the HOP DAO to align with incentives provided to other pools
- Vote "For" exploring treasury diversification. It's been sort of a 'everyone agrees, but not much has gone forward' situation but I'm hoping as a broad concept for some diversification. As I don't think DAOs should be expected to have their treasury 100% allocated in their specific token.
- And Voted "For" creating a new 'head of the DAO' role. The goal being to have someone who helps keep the DAO moving instead of relying specifically on the good will of delegates to take on projects. Such as running the bi-weekly calls, for example. I think this will help with some of the stagnation the DAO has seen of late.
I'll also share that I've been heading HOP's application for the upcoming 12 week ARB grant program. Me and two other delegates that assisted with this just submitted our finalized application located here. The goal is to subsize bridging fees to Arbitrum, as well as incentivize AMM pools, over those 12 weeks. Decision pending council / DAO vote, but I was really happy how it came out. So I have my fingers crossed.
Which, btw shout out to u/seamonkey82 as you'll notice a link to a certain ARB forum actually works now :)
u/BigglyBillBrasky shares some big news from BlackRock
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bidash/daily_general_discussion_march_19_2024/kvmo87n/)Ya'll we're in before BlackRock 🥂
"JUST IN: BlackRock launches digital asset fund and deposits $100 million $USDC on the Ethereum network."
u/Syentist has the latest on the gas limit increase movement
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bidash/daily_general_discussion_march_19_2024/kvlyn71/)Eric and Mariano starting an awareness campaign to increase gas limit from 30 to 40mn.
Gas limit can be increased in a coordinated and rational manner by validators. It doesn't need a hard fork.
This is the exact amount that Vitalik suggested during an AMA last year
How much gas limit can we safely increase now? and after Verkle?
Honestly, I think doing a modest gas limit increase even today is reasonable. The gas limit has not been increased for nearly three years, which is the longest time ever in the protocol's history (that 2x bump in the chart in late 2021 is "fake", in that it reflects the EIP-1559 transition, which increased the "limit" by 2x but only increased actual average usage by ~9%). And so splitting the post-2021 gains from Moore's law 50/50 between increased capacity and increased ease of syncing/verification would imply an increase to around 40M or so.
Long overdue and Godspeed!
u/benido2030 tries to prepare us for what is to come
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1bj6k75/daily_general_discussion_march_20_2024/kvpf5hr/)If this drop bothers you, I potentially have bad news for you. Well, not really, but if we are really just at the start of a bull run, similar drops at higher USD values might make you sick... So prepare mentally for crazy stuff that will happen. Some random numbers to showcase the things we might be witnessing:
Disclaimer: Everything that follows is based on the assumption that your whole portfolio is in ETH and that we basically went from 4k to 3k (which, at least until now, we didn't, but we also peaked slightly over 4k, so 25% is as good as it gets). You're probably a little diversified, so your port value fluctuates a little differnet. Just pretend it is 100% ETH!
If you have:
- 25 ETH = 100k USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 25k in a week
- 50 ETH = 200k USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 50k in a week
- 100 ETH = 400k USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 100k in a week
- 250 ETH = 1M USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 250k in a week
Good news: 1 ETH = 1 ETH, but from my experience from the last cycle it's the USD value that hurts.
Bad news: If this is just the start of a bull we might 2.5x from 4k to 10k or even 4x to something like 15-16k. This is great, but a 25% drop will hurt even more. With ETH = 10k USD
- 25 ETH = 250k USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 62.5k in a week
- 50 ETH = 500k USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 125k in a week
- 100 ETH = 1M USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 250k in a week
- 250 ETH = 2.5M USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 625k in a week
or with ETH hitting 16kish
- 25 ETH = 400k USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 100k in a week
- 50 ETH = 800k USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 200k in a week
- 100 ETH = 1.5M USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 375k in a week
- 250 ETH = 4M USD a 25% drop like this cut your USD portfolio by 1M in a week
Now why am I posting this? I know I can't really prepare you for these scenarios. You probably will have to go through these to really understand what this means. Also let me tell you I have no idea how I will feel if we hit 10k or 16k and drop 25%. May 2021 (basically down only from 4k to 2k within 2 weeks and even below 2k within 2 months) killed a lot of emotions and changed me long term I think. But if you just joined in the last 2 years, you should try to play through some scenarios and get used to losing a lot (USD) value in a short amount of time.
And while I am at it... Think about how you would feel if we hit 15k and then the bear hits and we go down 75% :)
Week #58: March 8, 2024
Announcements
- 🎉 We surpassed 1000 dooters! 🎉
- 🧑🏫 Rocket School has launched, an education series teaching you how to run a node from home, produced by JT Nichol, Doubtstars, Interweaver, juxtanotherposition, Eyezick, ShfRyn, and ZombieBP
- Dencun upgrade is March 13th, make sure to update your validator clients. EthStaker is also hosting an upgrade stream at 9am EST.
- $4k imminent, ༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ ETH TAKE OUR ENERGY ༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ
Upcoming Guests
- March 22 - Adam Blumberg of Interaxis
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b9gurw/comment/ktvqiav/)Ethereum
$3889
89,573 hodlers subscribed (+11)
0.058161
540 days since The Merge.
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b8n4nd/comment/kttzfty/)There's none his kin,
Tokens can't do the talkin,
A dead man walkin.
Shitpost of the week: u/aur3l1us
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b2t640/comment/ksnux6k/)Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray that Wall St. will pump my ETH. But even if the ETFs should fail, I know and I trust in good ol’ retail.
Choda time
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b8n4nd/comment/ktsf8nu/)༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ ETH TAKE MY ENERGY ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
u/El-Coco-No shares his knowledge about finalization
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b2t640/daily_general_discussion_february_29_2024/ksow2ll/)Finalization
I’ve just been learning more about finalization and had a few ah-ha moments that made me very happy. I figured I’d share them here and also ask anyone to check my thinking.
Finalization is not some magic 2/3 number, where an almost finalized block just needs to get over that hump of 2/3 of the validators attesting to it and then it’s safe. It’s just a line that we’ve chosen to define and say “here’s a good bar to meet and we can say the block is “finalized.”
So what is it and why does it matter?
The beacon chain chooses one validator at random to propose a block in each 12-second slot of the blockchain. That validator is the only one who can propose a block, and they can only propose one block. If they propose more than one block for the same slot, they get slashed and force-exited as a validator.
The interesting thing to note here is that an Ethereum block reorg only has two possible outcomes: the proposed block or an empty block. That differs from Bitcoin, in which reorged blocks contain different transactions and were proposed by different miners.
Anyway…blocks are only validated by a fraction of the existing validators, as each validator only attests to 1 out of every 32 blocks. This is a way to keep Ethereum nimble, as requiring each validator to attest to each block would bog down the network.
However, at the end of every 32 block section (32 blocks is an “epoch”), there is a block called a “checkpoint.” When a validator casts their 1-out-of-every-32 blocks vote, they also cast a vote attesting to the last checkpoint. When a checkpoint garners attestations from 2/3 of all validators in existence, that checkpoint (and every block before it) is considered “justified.”
And when two checkpoints in a row are justified (which naturally takes at minimum of two epochs or 12.8 minutes), the oldest of the two justified blocks is considered “finalized” along with every block that preceded it.
So why is this important? Because of the double vote slashing offense.
Each validator can only vote one way per block. They can’t change their vote, or a double vote slashing occurs. When a validator is slashed, they lose around .5 eth and are forced-exited after a certain amount of delayed time. This time delay allows the protocol to see who else is being penalized around the same time period. If there are many slashing offenses, the protocol assumes they were colluding to attack the network, and the slashing offenses start to get angry and impose an additional penalty. It’s important to understand the formula for this additional penalty. It’s:
validator_balance * 3 * fraction_of_validators_slashed
In other words, if you’re the only offender, your additional penalty is negligible. However, if at least 1/3 of the other validators were also slashed around the same time, you lose all of your stake. (This is one reason that it’s so stupid to be running a super majority client, but I digress).
So let’s look at this in terms of a justified block. Most conservative case:
A block is justified because exactly 2/3 validators have attested to it (and the other 1/3 haven’t voted yet). In order to get reorged, 2/3 + 1 validators need to attest to a different block in that slot. We’ll, 1/3 of validators are still free to vote, but to get the other 1/3 + 1 validators, 1/3 + 1 of all total validators will need to cast a second vote. They can do this, but they’ll get slashed. And a quick look at our handy formula above tells you this will result in a total slashing event of all of these validators’ shit.
And if it’s this costly to change a justified block, imagine how difficult it would be to reorg a finalized one. The details get a little tricky here for me, but I believe it would require over 2/3 of all validators losing all of their stake. Right now, that’s $73 billion dollars worth of security. Not only would the benefit of coordinating this attack have to be worth more than $73 billion, but the attacker would also have to corrupt over 2/3 of the decentralized validators of Ethereum. That last statement is the reason that decentralization matters in Ethereum, and why home stakers are soooooo important. Ethereum needs to be able to withstand a full on moloch attack worth all the money that will ever be settled on top of the chain. Since we like to think that’s the entire world’s economy, the value of the eth securing the network by validators will only take us so far. Decentralization does the rest.
u/Wulkingdead shares their bull case over at r/cc
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b3n2y3/daily_general_discussion_march_1_2024/ksvne1w/)i made a 'my bull case for Ethereum' post in r/cc if any of you are interested, or have any corrections :D
somehow i spent 2 hours on making that post LOL! Also posted on eth subreddits but check out the r/cc one ;)
u/accidental_green shares their validator updater for the upcoming hard fork and the circles back shares their story of writing a useful staking script
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b4h3wq/daily_general_discussion_march_2_2024/kt01amw/)To help validators with the upcoming hard fork, I improved my open source Validator Updater so everyone can easily update their validator in under a minute!
Detailed instructions can be found on the Ethstaker post, quick summary below.
Note: The updater is adapted from Somer Esat's guides, and saves the updated binaries to /usr/local/bin. If you have a different setup, you can move the binaries to your desired location after download.
Validator Updater Summary:
- Select Execution Client: (Besu, Geth, Nethermind)
- Select Consensus Client: (Lighthouse, Nimbus, Prysm, Teku)
- Update MEV-boost? (Yes/No)
- Click "Update"
That's it, updates process in the terminal and you can be back online before missing a single attestation!
Feel free to check out my other open source Ethereum projects:
Validator Install - Install a full validator from fresh Ubuntu in minutes
Client Switcher - Instantly switch execution clients to improve client diversity
All code is open source but has not been audited, so any testing/feedback is always appreciated.
A Prysm dev forked my code!
I wanted to share my story in case anyone here is considering contributing to Ethereum and isn't sure how to get started.
So to start, I'm not a programmer. I was the "Excel guy" at the office because I knew how to do vlookups. I started dabbling in VBA and eventually wrote a macro to take an Ethereum address and lookup the balance using Etherscan API.
One day while updating my validator, I decided to try a Python script rather than copy/paste the 10 commands. I ran the script and was shocked it actually worked. I slowly added more clients and eventually created the validator-updater.
I figured if I could write a script to update, maybe I could write a script that took commands from Somer Esat's guides and create a full validator-install script.
It took a few months, but I finally got it working. I decided to create a Github account and share on Ethstaker. People responded positively, but no one actually wanted to run it (would you trust your 32 ETH to a random script on Github?)
It was pretty disappointing to know I created something that made staking 100x easier, but no one wanted to run it. I made updates, added clients, but in the end it felt like I was screaming into the void (props to u/superphiz for saying he liked my project and encouraging me to continue working on it).
Eventually u/nixorokish at Ethstaker reached out and said they liked my initiative and wanted to send some DAI as a thank you. Once that DAI hit my wallet I remember thinking I made it, I'm officially on the Ethereum payroll!
A few months later, I got a notification that someone created a pull request on my repository. I went to investigate and noticed it was Preston Van Loon (Prysm dev) fixing a typo in my validator install code. Pushing the merge button made me feel like an actual developer.
He also forked my repository, which means it's now hosted on his Github. That was a major boost to my confidence and Github street cred.
u/hanniabu reached out and suggested adding a keystore import to the installer. I worked up a few changes and he graciously reviewed the code and provided valuable feedback.
As the client diversity stuff became popular, I created client-switcher to help people switch execution clients with a single click. It was well received and multiple people reached out saying they were able to successfully switch to a minority client.
Recently u/coincashew forked my code and created their own one line installer, mentioning that because of my code they were able to write the whole thing in a single day. People were actually building off my code, and the idea of open source started to make more sense.
So what's the point in writing all this? I'm not really sure. I spent years as a silent observer of this sub, so decided it's finally time to share my story and maybe inspire someone to start that project they've been thinking about.
This hasn't been very lucrative financially, but it's nice knowing I've contributed to Ethereum and made staking a bit more accessible. Not sure where it goes from here, but I'm cleaning up the code in hopes to eventually have it audited.
Thanks to everyone who provided guidance and encouragement. This really is a special corner of the internet, and I'm happy to be a part of it!
u/plaenar shares a crazy scammer tactic of address poisoning (be careful!)
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b4h3wq/daily_general_discussion_march_2_2024/kt14h6q/)Be careful, someone is address poisoning transactions pretty efficiently. I sent some ETH from wallet A to a new wallet B, and after the transaction went through, someone sent me a dust amount of ETH to wallet A. The scammer's address has the same first 4 and last 4 characters as wallet B. Now I have to be really careful not to accidentally send anything to the scammer's address.
Its alarming because of how quickly they did it, being able to brute force a vanity address with 8 matching characters, fund it, have the txs go through within a minute.
u/superphiz shares an idea of something like the equivalent of the Nobel prize for Ethereum
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b59xrs/daily_general_discussion_march_3_2024/kt55q90/)Free idea: a few years ago, someone told me they'd like to see a Nobel Prize equivalent for Ethereum, but it hasn't happened yet.
The chain will turn 10 years old in ~18 months, which seems like great timing for this! It gives enough time to make it happen properly, too 😄
I really love this idea and could see it being something that EthFinance and/or the EVMaverick's spearheaded.
u/Wurstgewitter shares a nice site he made gashighdontcry
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b59xrs/daily_general_discussion_march_3_2024/kt6ztfw/)Hi guys, I am currently building a little website, mostly to improve my typescript and next.js skills. I am a backend dev trying to get more into frontends for a while, partly because of my job.
I wanted to come up with an educational page about ethereum gas and L2s. The main points I want to bring across are how gas cost is not the same for every transaction, but depends on the type of transaction and especially the gas limit. Also I wanted to cover L2s and have an interactive option to compare the gas prices between L1 <> L2 (so far only mainnet and arbitrum)
There is a lot of confusion among newcomers about these topics, and maybe a website like this will help someone. I know there are similar pages, but as I said I mostly needed an excuse to build something haha.
Check out my prototype here gashighdontcry.net
Mobile view works but is not optimized yet.
While working on it I noticed that the arbiscan api always returns 0.1GWei for the gas price, so that part is kinda static, but afaik there is no better way to estimate arbitrum gas.
When you have ideas for more content, or notice bugs or whatever let me know!
u/Maswasnos Cheers to the folks who stuck around in the daily!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b63kgo/daily_general_discussion_march_4_2024/ktdcxry/)Pretty incredible to be closing in on $4k again after 2 years. Cheers to the folks who stuck around in the daily, I wasn't as active as I was in 2021/22 but I still read it almost every day.
u/jtnichol Rocketschool in session
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b6y3ja/daily_general_discussion_march_5_2024/ktgwgu2/)Rocket School now Live! EVMavericks ManeNet DAO + EthStaker + Rocket Pool - Class Is In Session!
💓♻️ https://twitter.com/ProDJKC/status/1765032313962811697
https://nitter.net/ProDJKC/status/1765032313962811697
u/SeaMonkey82 Reminds us Dencun March 13 (approx. 13:55 UTC)!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b7se02/daily_general_discussion_march_6_2024/ktkmrsk/)Reminder:
u/Tricky_Troll 's van got hit and the camping is jeopardised for now OO
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1b6y3ja/daily_general_discussion_march_5_2024/kthvj0q/)Sorry guys, this is my fault. My van has been damaged after someone reversed into it and the door won’t close properly so camping has been jeopardised. I will do everything in my power to get the old girl up and running again so camping and the subsequent bull run can continue. Thank you for your understanding.
—(This is not a joke)—
Week #57: February 23, 2024
Special guest Kevin Owocki joins us from Gitcoin and Green Pill (https://greenpill.network/), a network-society that exports regenerative digital infrastructure to the world.
Announcements
- 👶🏻 LogrisTheBard is having a baby
- EthDenver Feb 29 - Mar 3
- Registration is open for the EY Global Blockchain Summit, April 16-18 2024
Upcoming Guests
- March 15 - Swagtimus of Scroll
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1axt9ig/comment/krqaa9s/)Ethereum
89,343 hodlers subscribed (+23)
$2,957
0.057
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1awz3t2/comment/krnwdmt/)Accumulate points,
The new crypto muscle joints,
Legal disappoints.
Shitpost of the week: u/Tricky_Troll
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aug4kx/daily_general_discussion_february_19_2024/kr44ill/)How do you do fellow digital asset securities investors? I would like to enquire about which registered broker-dealer you use to trade your digital asset securities such as Ethereum and others. I just don't trust these "crypto exchanges" like Coinbase, nor do I trust open source code as you never know when it might fail! Could one of you please recommend me an SEC compliant platform which I can trust to be properly regulated? I only feel comfortable holding crypto under such regulations as anything else makes me worry about a 2007-style collapse.
u/SeaMonkey82 breaks the news of Besu being Dencun ready
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ar8nxe/daily_general_discussion_february_15_2024/kqiis88/)Besu is Dencun Ready!!
This release is the minimum version that is required for the upcoming Ethereum Mainnet Dencun upgrade on March 13th. You must upgrade to this version (or greater) before then, or your node will no longer follow the chain. This is also a required version for Besu nodes on Ethereum Classic (ETC). This release does not contain other fixes or improvements. We plan on releasing more fixes, improvements, and features in our next release.
u/Infer114 has a remediation process for incorrect $STRK allocation
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ar8nxe/daily_general_discussion_february_15_2024/kqigdsq/)A resume for solo stakers and STRK airdrop, if you are not correctly identified, I think you should :
- create an issue on starknet github : https://github.com/starknet-io/provisions-data/issues
- create an other one on rated network github : https://github.com/rated-network/solo-stakers/issues
- send an email to starknet support : provisionsupport@starknet.org
If you want to keep privacy regarding your public keys, you can DM wenmerge on X : https://twitter.com/Wenmerge2022/status/1757897430992056580
Hope I didn't forgot anything about everything I've read here and there, and hope it helps !
u/Distant-Shores celebrates their 1,000th day on-chain!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1asuvrp/daily_general_discussion_february_17_2024/kqtscvy/)This week I turn the page on being a 1000 days on chain. I like to share this with you, as I have a lot to thank this community for.
Getting from CEX to on chain is daunting and feels like stepping into the dark with dangers left and right.
By lurking on Ethfinance I learned some best practises for basic security and common on chain sense. This made me confident in exploring the early L2's and dApps and qualifiing for, among others, ARB and OP. I got gifted an EVM lion and went on to stake on Gnosis and test for Diva. I rode the 2021 bull hype, and survived the 2022/2023 bear depths and despair.
From time to time I try to contribute here and help others out.
Thank you Ethfinanciers for having me! May you live long and prosper.
Now onwards to the next 1000 days!
u/newtosh breaks some NFT news and u/nothingnotnever explains what it means
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1atn3er/daily_general_discussion_february_18_2024/kqymti9/)NFT news: Yuga Labs bought the Moonbirds project. They already "own" Bored Apes (which they created), and CryptoPunks (which they bought from Larva Labs).
Moonbirds is CC0 so no one has the copyright to individual NFTs, but Yuga now owns the name and the team. It was an “all stock deal”, no money. The plan is to integrate them into their Otherside metaverse platform. Many apes are pissed as they see it as diluting the ape brand, but Yuga leadership is saying it’s good for all holders in their ecosystem, which includes apes, mutants, cryptopunks, meebits, 10KTF, Kodas, Otherdeeds, HV-MTL, Mara, and doggos. Maybe I missed one.
u/pbrody shares the return of the EY blockchain summit!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aug4kx/daily_general_discussion_february_19_2024/kr52w43/)GM Everyone! EY Blockchain Summit is back (again). You can't keep us down :)
Registration is here and we'll do our usual collaboration with EthFinance on Q&A.
This year we're VERY FOCUSED on finance because of the global regulatory convergence going on. We'll be doing the summit from London with a big focus on Europe's increasing regulatory maturity.
Speakers include the Lord Mayor of London and we've got folks from Fnality, Coinbase and more. We'll also be showing our newest state-of-the-art privacy tech as well.
u/domotheus was just interviewed on Bankless!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aug4kx/daily_general_discussion_february_19_2024/kr5f36r/)Bankless episode with yours truly is out
It's a long one, but it's fairly comprehensive of the whole roadmap (still had a lot to say tho)
u/benido2030 updates the community driven ETH bull case
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aug4kx/daily_general_discussion_february_19_2024/kr4fcer/)Some months ago I started to ask for input for a community driven ETH bull case. Today I would like to update it, cause I think the bull market and developments of the past 5 months have changed some of the points we collected back then!
Ethereum the network
- No competition for decentralized programmable blockspace: No alt-L1 is even trying to attack Ethereum by being more decentralized, all L1s are emphasizing speed/ throughput.
- Only credible neutral blockchain/ network: Ethereum's credible neutrality makes Ethereum the only truly trustless ecosystem.
- Ethereum is green since Proof of Stake: Ethereum's energy consumption is down by 99% which is a huge advantage with limited supply and the criticism e.g. Bitcoin faces.
- Ethereum still number 1 for developers: Ethereum is home to developers and hence innovation. New narratives like restaking are still developed by/ for Ethereum.
- The EVM is lindy: By now the Ethereum Virtual Machine is lindy
- Ethereum is the only blockchain/ with multiple clients: Ethereum is the only blockchain which is secured by multiple clients to guarantee liveness.
- Ethereum is finally scaling via Layer 2s: Layer 2s provide sufficient blockspace and result in lower fees for the ecosystem.
- EIP 4844 and protodanksharding: With the Dencun fork and the introduction of blobspace fees will be cut for Layers2 by an order of magnitude allowing for very low transactions cost.
- ETH continues to attract big companies: Companies like PayPal and Visa are developing payment solutions and even nation states are launching CBDC pilots based on the EVM
Ether the asset
- ETH as a triple point asset: ETH is covering all major asset classes:
- ETH is a capital asset: Staked ETH allows you to collect a share of Ethereum's fees and produces cash flow.
- ETH as Store of Value and Money: ETH is a great collateral and money e.g. in the NFT market.
- ETH is needed for transactions: Since ETH is used to pay for gas fees, it is a consumable - and from previous cycles we know that people are willing to pay a lot for ETH's blockspace.
- ETH leaves CEXes and price discovery still happens on CEXes. Leaving ETH means that sell pressure goes down.
- Demand more ETH keeps going up, projects like Eigenlayer (but also Blast etc.) are like a black hole that takes ETH out of the liquid supply and locks it in smart contracts. LRTs can't make up for that.
- Restaking exports ETHs security and makes it a central asset beyond the Ethereum network and ecosystem
- ETH as a deflationary asset: Since the merge about 0.25% of the circulating ETH supply has been burned and ETH is deflationary. During a bull run the amount of ETH burned is likely even higher, leading to a supply shock and a ETH prices skyrocketing.
- ETH has yield: Since withdrawals were introduced, staking is as close to risk free as it gets and so is the yield. This narrative is unique, both in crypto, but also in traditional finance and will lead to increased demand from all kinds of institutions.
- The ETH ETF is coming. The BTC ETF seems to have surprised to the upside, net flows are way higher than people expected. The ETH ETF could come as soon as May and will be the only other ETF for this cycle.
I have deleted one bullet (that talks about nation state demand) and have exchanged it basically with the ETF , cause at this point this seems like a plausible narrative and all institutions could buy ETH that way. On top I have added new demand drivers like Eigenlayer and the effects it already had and will have.
I am sure there is more, so keep it coming if you think there should be more added!
u/hanniabu is back to building cool things, this time for Farcaster users
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aug4kx/daily_general_discussion_february_19_2024/kr61w60/)After creating my farcaster account, I realized there wasn't a way to easily share your handle in a frontend-agnostic way so i created https://mycaster.xyz.
With Mycaster you can easily create a share link which will redirect to whichever frontend the person opening the link uses.
How does it work?
The person that wants to share their account enters their farcaster handle and selects Generate Link. This will automatically copy the link to clipboard so you can share it.
For the people that click your link, they can select their preferred frontend to be redirected to. Their selection will be remembered and automatically forward them the next time they use a MyCaster share link.
Try it out! https://mycaster.xyz/?p=hanniabu
u/benido2030 introduces EthFinance's 3 $STRK delegates
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aug4kx/daily_general_discussion_february_19_2024/kr41wnr/)The day has (almost) finally arrived, Starknet has announced the $STRK token will be launched and airdropped tomorrow. If you are part of the airdrop: Congratz!
Now some of you will probably dump it and that's okay. But for those that will keep it, you probably know that you will have to make a decision soon, because $STRK is a governance token and so you will have to pick a delegate. In the past couple of weeks and months we have found three delegates that would like to represent the community within the starknet ecosystem:
- u/atleft: You can find their starknet delegate profile here
- u/_weboftrust: You can find their starknet delegate profile here
- u/panthoreon: You can find their starknet delegate profile here
While atleft and _weboftrust are delegates already (governance was kicked off even before the token was airdropped, they both got $STRK delegated by the starknet foundation), panthoreon is a new delegate. You can find a little more info about that here. Panthoreon shared some thoughts, insights and motivation here.
So when you claim and delegate, keep these three names / delegates in mind. The goal is that all three delegates are open to listening to your feedback and vote based on comments and discussions happening on reddit. So instead of delegating to some maybe famous name from CT, that will probably not take your opinion and arguments into account, I think it would be beautiful if some of us delegated to "our delegates".
u/benido2030 explains StarkNet for anyone out of the loop
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1avafsm/daily_general_discussion_february_20_2024/kr9vuft/)Starknet is one of the very few non-EVM layer2s. The other very famous ones (OP, ARB, zksync, etc.) are (zk)EVMs. So it is unique in that sense, users need a different wallet and hence the UX is different than what we "usually" see. This is also true for developers, since they need to develop in Cairo, the programming language for Starknet. Because of that (almost?) all apps you can use on starknet are starknet-only since it's not easy to bring e.g. Uniswap or AAVE to Starknet.
I believe there are only smart contract wallets. Account abstraction is natively built into Starknet. Also STRK can be used to pay gas in the future.
u/baerbelleksa reminds those receiving an airdrop to take a moment to think about helping others
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aug4kx/daily_general_discussion_february_19_2024/kr807ln/)now that ETH's nearing $3K, consider sharing some wealth to help folks in need 💗
Seeds: Crypto Mutual Aid is on Juicebox:
https://juicebox.money/v2/p/624
If unfamiliar, Seeds has helped folks in need in 29 countries & counting. Because DeFi, the ecosystem can successfully offer aid where tradfi and traditional aid fail.
**
One example:
Kana Piath, a schoolchild in South Sudan, couldn't afford to continue elementary school, so her grandmother redeemed a SEED to ask for help.
The Seeds community got them the funds they needed so she could continue school.
They sent a thank you note that said Kana was so excited she ran to school at 6 am the first day back to catch up with her friends. :)
Week #56: February 16, 2024
Livestream Recording | POAP Checkout
Announcements
- Starknet airdrop is claimable tomorrow, you can check elligibility here. Make sure to seect the Ethereum tab for your check. US residents will need a VPN.
- Registration is open for the EY Global Blockchain Summit, April 16-18 2024
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1as1h64/comment/kqnfw7b/)Ethereum
$2847
0.0544
89,350 hodlers subscribed (-17)
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1alov71/comment/kpjc4xp/)The next fork in March,
Continously overarch,
Leave the rest to parch.
Shitpost of the week: u/doomfuzzslayer
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aqfvsu/daily_general_discussion_february_14_2024/kqhhwyl/)Guys I’m really worried. Cardano. You’ve heard of it right? Pretty sure the founder and lead dev - can’t remember his name but he has a dope beard - also the founder of playboy (or maybe it’s one of those boomer porn mags - hustler?) Anyway dude is LEGIT and recently announced they’re moving to ON CHAIN GOVERNANCE! You can’t get more decentralized than that. Pure democracy. Tokens = votes just like in the REAL WORLD. Eth and dare I say Btc need to get their shit together. Btc is a horse and buggy (with shitty suspension). Eth is a stock car (leaking oil). Solana is a space ship (leaky o ring - we know how that ends). Algorand is…sorry lost my train of thought. Cardano tho. They’ve FIGURED IT OUT!
You’re on alert eth devs. The time of autocratic rule will soon be over. On chain governance - pure clean democracy as it should be - is our future.
u/benido2030 was looking for a new EthFinance $STRK delegate and u/panthoreon stepped up!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1alov71/daily_general_discussion_february_8_2024/kpglgvv/)Argent yesterday announced on twitter (you'll not see me using that new "brand") that
The Starknet airdrop is coming soon 🪂
I think Argent and Starknet are in a rather strong partnership. Argent is now a Starknet only wallet (Ethereum etc technically still works, but I think all other chains are "legacy" by now). If they post stuff like that, it's really close.
We have two members from the community already that would like to be "our" delegate:
They both have been delegates for some time, since Starknet governance is already up and running. This is great, they know how it all works, they are known (both here and within the starknet ecosystem), so these are great people to delegate to.
But I would still like to find a 3rd, "fresh" delegate, someone who has not been a delegate but is familiar with Starknet, wants to go into governance and has the time and energy to listen to this community.
This time I would like to change the process a little. If there are people that want to be a delegate there, feel free to leave a comment. But since last time there was only tricky (and they sadly had to drop out again because of missing free time for such an adventure) I think we could also propose people we feel would make a great delegate. Those members of course have to decide if they want to do it (and potentially starknet is not the best protocol if they are not users/ familiar) but at least we can get a discussion started :)
So in response to this post from yesterday and the thread on farcaster: I would like to get more involved with the ethereum community, so I would be honored if elected as a delegate for starknet.
- Who am I? -
I am a non-dev person with a mechanical engineering background, working in the supply chain field with a wide variety of functional experiences like network planning, procurement, demand planning, and logistics. My background equipped me with strong logic-based thinking, process mapping, and root cause analysis / problem solving skills.
As a person, I come from a very humble background that I believe has granted me a more holistic worldview; born and raised in Turkey, where corruption and poor fiscal management are like bread & butter (hence we see a wider adoption of crypto there):
I am very familiar with oppression, I know how it feels to be completely insecure in the midst of a military coup. I know what being tear gassed just for walking on the wrong street feels like. I know first-hand that to a third worlder, blockchain technologies mean a whole lot more in financial sovereignty.
Yet, I have also gained perspective of the Western world as i have been living in US for the past 10+ years, developing my expertise in Supply chain.
A bit on the lighter side; I am a fitness enthusiast and have been a division 1 athlete in the past, I have self-taught art to a pretty serious level (primarily drawing) from imitating Spiderman comic books as a kid, and a huge animal-lover that spends a lot of his time with his two dogs.
- Why am I interested? -
I have known about ethereum since the single digit price times but was at the time not interested in "crypto", seeing only gambling as its usecase back then.
I got more interested as the ecosystem developed and we started seeing real applications of DeFi, when I joined this community and have been a relatively silent reader that contributes every once in a while ever since. I am part of EVMavericks and active in a few other groups on Discord where you can find me under another handle: Aybala.
My real "Aha" moment happened when - thanks to this awesome community - I attended an EY blockchain conference in NYC, and learned about Baseline and the potential applications of zero-knowledge within my industry, supply chain. Ever since, I have been more invested, both financially and timewise, in the overall blockchain ecosystem.
As a non-dev and a non-social media person, there are fewer possibilities to contribute to the ecosystem but being a delegate is something I can do.
I can commit to you all that I would invest the necessary time to ensure the best interests of this group, that I can bring to the table a perspective that is able to empathize and consider a wider ranges of human experience and be meticulous and process-driven in approaching any proposals / initiatives.
I appreciate everyone's time reading this and the consideration. Let me know if there is anything I can answer for you.
u/HombreDeCamote shares a long journey with a happy ending
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1amhanj/daily_general_discussion_february_9_2024/kpms478/)A year ago I lost access to a significant to me amount of ETH. Since then I had been working with developers from Offchain Labs and The Arbitrum Foundation to retrieve the funds. Two weeks ago, following an incredible amount of effort from some big-brained devs, developers from The Arbitrum Foundation deployed retrieval contracts. Unfortunately the contracts were front run which resulted in the ETH being sacrificed and converted to a large block proposer fee. This would be similar to if I dropped a dollar on your front yard and asked you to pass it to me but when you reached out to do so, someone ran between us and grabbed the dollar.
I followed the transactions using a block explorer and noted that white hat hacker c0ffeebabe.eth had also attempted to rescue my funds but was also unable. I learned that c0ffeebabe.eth has used their skills to protect everyday users, in once instance they rescued $5.7M/2879 ETH from hackers and returned every cent/gwei, so I reached out for help. They, and users from this sub, were able to help me confirm that the proposal fee address belonging to Staked, which was recently acquired by Kraken Digital Asset Exchange.
I was able to get in touch with several decision makers at both organizations. I explained the situation and provided documentation to prove the ETH had belonged to me till I lost access. Within a few short days they told me they had decided to return my ETH to me. As far as I know this is the first time a validator has returned a block proposal fee in an instance of theft or exploit , but please correct me if I am wrong. Regardless, I hope that the actions of Staked, Kraken, the Arbitrum Foundation, and OffChain Labs helps to set industry precedent moving forward.
I am incredibly grateful and incredibly lucky for the way this turned out. Without the support, sympathy, and skill of many strangers this outcome would not have been possible. Thank you to all those involved and to members of this community who helped me see this through.
u/Itur_ad_Astra reminds us to keep pushing for execution client change as we are currently in the danger zone
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1an9h36/daily_general_discussion_february_10_2024/kprog1y/)So, I've had an idea about client diversity (and how to push more people to switch clients).
See, we are right now in a "tragedy of the commons" situation, where people CBA to switch from Geth because its usage is falling anyways, so someone else will do it, right?
Plus, psychologically, a 72% Geth dominance looks way better than a 85% Geth dominance. And on top of that, the risk seems lower to just stay on Geth.
But we all know that there's no difference whether the supermajority client is at 66% or at 90%. A bad block will finalize immeiately, and stakers will lose their stake. Most people on Ethfinance are aware of that.
The risk is the same... right? Well, no.
So, here's my idea. I think that, if you believe in the dynamics of "Layer 0", a 66% supermajority is much, much worse than a 90% supermajority for stakers running the supermajority client.
At 90% supermajority, I can easily see the community deciding on either a rollback (yeah, yeah, I know, never again, code is law etc., but let's be realistic) or accepting the Geth block as the correct one and going forward from there, either with some kind of compensation for Nethermind/Besu clients, or even no compensation.
At 90% supermajority, there would be little discussion and it's clear to me what would happen. And it's clearer the higher the Geth dominance is.
However, I think that at 66% things would be way more messier and contentious. This is now the "danger zone" where enough of the community did the right thing and have a strong enough voice, that the outcome of a supermajority client bug will be respected. This is where Geth users find themselves losing their stake.
And they might have a much more quiet voice than they expect. Centralized staking services, which are the ones that are mostly refusing to do the right thing (I'm looking at you, Coinbase and Binance) will just lose someone else's money, not their own. They got their cut on your profits, they lost your stake, c'est la vie. There might be some lawsuits, they are used to that.
Change your clients. We are far from dealing with this and the situation is still critical.
*Sidenote: I'm very much a layman (albeit a staking one), so I'd like some input if my thinking is wrong.
Something to note with the values on clientdiversity.org is the lower the geth dominance does, the less accurate it is
/- hanniabu
u/superphiz reminds us to be cautious with unnecessary protocol risk
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1an9h36/daily_general_discussion_february_10_2024/kps9zqy/)As of today, Eigenlayer reports 2,470,100 Ether staked. With a total of 30,338,443 Ether staked (according to Hildobby), this represents about 8% of the total staked Eth under withdraw contract addresses developed by Eigenlayer. This is far from the 22% threshold I advocate, but it's wise to look ahead.
On one hand, I don't see this as a problem at all. Eigenlayer is cool, and restaking is interesting. I've made a small deposit into Eigenlayer and I look forward to seeing what it does.
On the other hand, amassing 8% of the validator withdrawal addresses prior to launch might send some red flags, especially considering that Eigenlayer has indicated that they have no intention of self limiting (It's somewhere in that chat, I don't have a time stamp, feel free to offer it).
Why is this concerning? It represents unnecessary protocol risk. Our ultimate mission as stakers is to secure the beacon chain. It's great if we can eek out extra revenue doing other tasks, but the social contract is to secure the beacon chain. We ought to recognize the real smart contract and governance risks here and recognize that any time we shift the balance and aggregate risk in one large pool we're posing a threat to the underlying protocol.
As usual, I'm not directing this to you, dear friend, I'm talking about the larger ecosystem risk. I imagine you're participating in Eigenlayer with less than 300,000 staked Ether and you likely represent less than 1% of the Ether staked on the beacon chain. I'm telling you that large entities who have no commitment to the success of Ethereum may put our network at risk and you ought to be aware of that AND ready to protect the protocol as well as your investment. You don't have to stand idly by as your work is eroded by anyone.
I'm not asking you to avoid Eigenlayer or any of the cool ancillary platforms that have sprung up around it, I'm asking you to zoom out and recognize the dangers of aggregating risk. This isn't about Eigenlayer - it's about ANY risk aggregator who is ever willing to add existential risk to our chain. And I'll repeat myself: I LIKE the Eigenlayer concept.
u/Tricky_Troll wants to put pressure on certain teams to implement better anti-scam systems
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ao10pn/daily_general_discussion_february_11_2024/kpwckfr/)So, regarding u/HiPattern's post yesterday about wallet dusting attacks which impersonate the most recent wallet you sent funds to in an effort to make it look like the top wallet in your Etherscan history is yours but it's actually just a similar wallet which is not yours in an effort to get you to accidentally send funds to their wallet next time you need to send to your previous sender. (Sorry, it's hard to explain, check out the post if you didn't get that.)
So currently, people are losing lots of money to these sneaky scams. I could very well see a dark future where I myself let my guard down when selling some ETH to get on the property ladder one day and when I go to transfer the funds to an exchange, I click the wrong account since it's right there at the top of my wallet's history and boom. My hopes and dreams of stability in where I live are gone for years to come.
Just imagine thinking you can finally buy a house for your family and then at the last minute one slip up and that whole dream was taken from you. This has happened to people before and it will happen again.
But this is completely avoidable! This is an extremely easy issue to solve. While it would be nice to get everyone to have better OpSec, it's not going to happen. However, one really minor tweak to Etherscan and it could be solved.
-
They could add a simple bit of code to either display the Jazzicon/block profile pic next to every wallet address. This way, even though it is small, one could see that the address is different since the colour/design is different.
-
They could add some code to flag wallets which have similar starting and ending letters. It could be a simple orange warning sign or something which has more info if you have over it or a big banner if you actually click on said wallet.
Best of all, Etherscan is good at this sort of stuff usually. They added a revoke token permissions app to prevent those affected by exploits and that was a much more complicated addition. On the simpler side, they tag known scam wallets as such.
So I'd like this to be a call to action for this community. We have done this before. Previously when we have wanted to get an idea broadcast out to the wider Ethereum community or a certain protocol, we have been able to do it if we all do our part. So please, if anyone knows someone who works for Etherscan or if you have followers/influence on other platforms like Twitter. Please, tell Etherscan to automatically flag dust attack wallets. If we are successful, we could successfully save many people from losing their life savings to this avoidable tragedy.
This is quite possibly one of the easiest changes which could be made to prevent a lot of money from falling into the wrong hands.
Edit: I guess this also should be done in wallets too like MetaMask. So why stop at Etherscan? Let's make a fuss to every wallet provider which doesn't have some kind of system to prevent this. It should be as simple as if you shorten wallet addresses, have a kind of warning bubble if there are similar addresses you have previously sent funds to.
u/TheHansGruber is grateful for retroactive public goods funding
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1apmglo/daily_general_discussion_february_13_2024/kq86iof/)As some of you may know, since the launch of the holesky testnet last September I have been maintaining and testing several thousand genesis validators alongside a dozen or so other meganerds from the rocketpool community. This is in spite of the fact that I almost certainly am responsible for bringing the average IQ of this group down a couple of points.
Over the last few months I have picked up a number of skills required for this sort of thing and I get a great deal of satisfaction knowing I am contributing in a small way to the development and progression of ethereum. I'll have these guys running for as long as the testnet needs 'em.
Anyway...I am proud to be able to say that, as of yesterday, I have received my first ever retroactive public goods funding from the folks over at ethstaker for operating these validators. Some months ago u/nixorokish posted in here about there being the possibility of a small grant/funding, and I inquired. I have a little extra pep in my step today. It isn't a huge pile of cash or anything, it's only meant to cover most of the cost of operating the machines. But it feels like a huge pile of cash to me, because for the first time I have tangible proof that I am, in fact, doing something useful in the space...other than shitposting on CT and farcaster, which I will contrinue to do regardless.
u/OkDragonfruit1929 summarises Ethereum
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1apmglo/daily_general_discussion_february_13_2024/kq8ornt/)Ethereum is not just a cryptocurrency; it's a platform for decentralized applications, smart contracts, and various decentralized finance projects. This ecosystem supports a wide range of applications, from finance and gaming to art and identity verification and tokenization of real-world assets and tokenization of commodities, offering a utility that goes infinitely beyond what Bitcoin was designed for. Bitcoin primarily serves as digital gold or a store of value, whereas Ethereum aims to be an open, transparent, equitable settlement layer for the entire planet.
The Ethereum network has spawned numerous Layer 2 solutions (L2s) like Optimism, Arbitrum, and zkSync, which aim to scale the network by handling transactions off the main Ethereum chain, thereby increasing throughput and reducing fees. This is in contrast to Bitcoin, which has largely remained focused on Layer 1 (L1) with some off-chain solutions like the Lightning Network, which is dying in front of our eyes. The growth and adoption of L2s arguably add to Ethereum's utility and value. With zero-knowledge proofs coming sooner than anyone expects, liquidity fragmentation between the L2s and L1 will soon be a thing of the past.
Ethereum's transition to Proof of Stake (PoS) with the Merge significantly altered its issuance model and energy consumption. In PoS, validators stake ETH to secure the network, which is more energy-efficient than Bitcoin's Proof of Work (PoW) model. The issuance model under PoS is designed to be fairer and more sustainable, with rewards not exponentially weighted toward the ultra-wealthy with exponentially more computational power, but on rather on a linear model that scales fairly with the amount of ETH staked. This levels the playing field for earning transaction fees and block rewards, contrasting with Bitcoin's model where mining power concentration can lead to extreme disparities in earning potential where the APR of the ultra-wealthy is magnitudes higher than the APR allotted to the lower 99%.
EIP-1559 introduced a mechanism for burning a portion of transaction fees, reducing the overall supply of ETH over time. This deflationary pressure is unique compared to Bitcoin's currently inflating supply until it finally caps at 21 million. The fee market mechanism of Ethereum also aims to make transaction fees more predictable.
Ethereum's ecosystem supports multiple client implementations, fostering a diverse and resilient network. This diversity can reduce the risk of network-wide failures due to bugs in a single client implementation, a contrast to the single point of failure landscape of Bitcoin's one and only client.
Despite these advantages, the market valuation of ETH compared to BTC has been far too heavily influenced by narrative, "store-of-value" meme-ability, speculation, investor sentiment, and market dynamics. While Ethereum's technological and ecosystem advancements provide ETH a stronger value proposition, the market has failed to notice.
u/hanniabu warns us of a clever new scam going around
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aqfvsu/daily_general_discussion_february_14_2024/kqcv3jr/)PSA: New toxic address scam
They register an ENS with your address, such as 0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045.eth (vitalik's address) so when you search for an address in an app it'll show in the results, potentially even as the first result as shown here:
u/skythe4 breaks the news of the StarkWare airdrop, u/Luukiemans breaks down the distribution, and u/superphiz tells us how to claim and more
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aqfvsu/daily_general_discussion_february_14_2024/kqcxsvs/)itshappening.gif
gm STRK ✨✨✨ Read more: https://medium.com/@StarknetFoundation/introducing-the-starknet-provisions-program-05d03ce13970
https://twitter.com/StarknetFndn/status/1757676598730342761
Let us intro: The Starknet Provisions Program Claiming starts Feb 20, 2024, 12pm UTC Check your eligibility 👇 provisions.starknet.io
https://twitter.com/StarknetFndn/status/1757676600596811928
Happy Valentine's Day stakers ETH Community:
You staked ETH up until the Merge - September 15th, 2022. Note that if you staked via a staking pool or centralized exchange you can't claim ETH directly through the portal. Your provider should claim the allocated STRK and distribute it to you.
Allocation:
- 51.33% to Starknet Users
- 21.99% to ETH Stakers
- 9.62% to StarkEx Users
- 9.05% to Starknet ECMP Members
- 3.36% to Ethereum Developer
- 2.14% to Starknet Developers
- 2.12% to Open-source Developers
- 0.22% to Ethereum Protocol Guild Members
- 0.19% to EIP Authors
In case no one has mentioned this, to check your STRK eligibility on an Ethereum address, you have to go to the claim page and click the third tab on the left before you enter the address. This is kind of a confusing ux.
Here's what the claim page looks like after you click the third tab: https://ibb.co/KVX2C4S
And the claim may be based on your deposit address or your withdrawal address, so check both if you don't see it.
I think all pre-merge beacon chain depositors are eligible.
Don't forget to appreciate Starknet for being the first airdrop to show significant support to the solo/home staking community!
Also, it looks like Rocket Pool stakers aren't able to claim right now, but I'm aware of internal discussions that are very like to conclude with Rocket Pool node operators claiming STRK.
Week #55: February 9, 2024
Livestream Recording | POAP Checkout
Announcements
- 🎉 u/benido2030 surpasses 100 daily doots! 🎉
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1amhanj/comment/kplmhkm/)Ethereum
$2450.76
0.053
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1alov71/comment/kpjc4xp/)The next fork in March,
Continously overarch,
Leave the rest to parch.
Shitpost of the week: u/doomfuzzslayer
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1agwsik/comment/kol7gzg/)I got your points. Meet me on the corner of West 32nd and Buterin at 10 tonight. Dress like you’re leaving the bar early heading home to a WoW raid. Act casual - like you know me. Talk in a Lithuanian accent - my devs don’t like Americans. Bring your seed phrase and pass it when we shake. If you hear somebody with a Swiss accent just keep moving and don’t make eye contact. Our danger word is Cardano. You hear that word. Get the hell out of there. if this works your points will show up within 48 hours. These are loyalty points - for fun. Like maybe we’ll let you on an AMA with the devs some day. We’re NOT doing a token - hear me? Don’t even mention a token. If you do…let’s just say not all airdrops end well if you catch my drift
u/TheHansGruber is looking into cool new staking hardware
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ag42lq/daily_general_discussion_february_1_2024/kofe3ed/)Spent some time at the rack last night. Updating the staking machines, swapping some patch cables, etc. I've got a new (to me) managed POE+ switch I'm pretty excited about. Gonna learn how to do vlan stuff for better security, and so I can install some POE cameras. Gotta rent a trenching machine and bury some cable too...not really excited about that part.
In going down the POE rabbit hole I came across a couple of interesting POE devices...including a POE NUC...which is awesome. It's priced like enterprise grade hardware...because it is. But a fanless, POE NUC that has the processing power to stake, yet is power efficient enough to be able to operate over POE is the dream. I already have the machine I'll be using as a nodeset operator setup, but I am considering throwing my hat into operation solo staker with etherfi too. If I could just hit one of these lottery blocks people keep talking about I would consider grabbing one of these POE NUCs.
While doing my normal monitoring I noticed that, on mainnet validators, the rewards per epoch have begun to consistently drop below 10,000 gwei...and I wonder if we will ever see 5 figure rewards epochs again. Holesky validators never saw 10xxx gwei rewards...it launched with well over a million validators...I think we have closer to 1.5 million validating currently. These lil guys are receiving 7xxx gwei per epoch. Will we see 1.5 million active validators on mainnet? I'm guessing that might be close to the upper limit of what people will accept as a return on their investment. Depending on what restaking does to overall APR, of course. I don't have enough info to begin to speculate on that.
The dencun upgrade went boringly (good!) on sepolia, and after updating the holesky machine the consensus client log reads "INFO Ready for Deneb". Me too, computer. Me too. Mainnet soon after.
(in the voice of the thing): IT'S BLOBBERIN' TIME
u/benido2030 gives us a comprehensive rundown on restaking
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1agwsik/daily_general_discussion_february_2_2024/kokjg1b/)What is restaking?
I will try to explain using EigenLayer as an example, following up on u/stablecoins post, but also because I have seen a lot of comments/ questions and think the concept isn't really clear. Please keep in mind that I am also writing this to structure my thoughts, but am not an expert at all, so things here might be wrong. If you spot mistakes, please correct them!
What is the general idea of restaking?
Restaking means that we use capital that is staked to secure Ethereum - both staked ETH in validators but also via LSTs - and also use it to secure something else (and something else).
What kind of things can be secured by restaking?
Basically anything. It could be an oracle. A data availability solution. An L2/ appchain. Anything that needs security.
Why is this needed?
Bootstrapping security for a new protocol is hard, especially if you want the validator set to be decentralized. Eigenlayer wants to be "a marketplace for trust". On this marketplace protocols that need trust/ security can tap into the already existing staked capital that Ethereum offers and build on that. Eigenlayer's thesis is that this is way easier than building it on your own. Their argument also builds on web2: Why have your own servers/ authentication etc. when you can just build in the cloud (e.g. AWS) or use Auth0 etc. = existing solutions that allow you to focus on your core product.
Important: the existing solution is not Eigenlayer, but the security offered by stakers / holders of LSTs.
So how does this marketplace = Eigenlayer work?
New protocols that want to build on Eigenlayer basically define what kind of trust/ security they need. This comes down to: Do they want only solo / home stakers to secure their network? Or are LSTs okay as well?
At the same time they define what they are willing to offer for that service: How much are they willing to pay for securing their network? This could be in ETH, their native token etc.
Also they of course define what the restakers have to do to secure the network. This means they provide a software/ client that the restakers have to run to secure the protocol. This is similar to what stakers run with execution and consensus clients to secure Ethereum. All these are called "AVSs". Actively validated services. Actively. Someone needs to do an action.
Restakers start by either creating an Eigenpod or by depositing LSTs. An Eigenpod is a smart contract that a validator points to. So if a validator wants to exit the beaconchain, the ETH goes to the Eigenpod first. Similarly by depositing LSTs into Eigenlayer you deposit it into a smart contract. If the restaker wants to exit Eigenlayer there is a 7 day period before they can finally really withdraw their assets.
This means that the assets don't leave the validator or the Eigenlayer smart contract. The secured protocol does not control the assets.
After depositing restakers then opt-in if they are willing to secure the new protocol. They accept the offer made by the protocol, run the client and secure the network and are paid for this service according to the terms.
There will also be operators that run the clients for you. So the restaker deposits, but delegates the actual management of the clients to a 3rd party. In that case you obviously trust someone else to do the job of securing correctly. Just like you do with LSTs or dPoS in other ecosystems. These operators of course ask for a fee to do that.
If they behave according to the protocols rules (= they secure the protocol as intended) they are paid. If they misbehave (=they attack the protocol they are supposed to secure) they can be slashed just like someone could be slashed on the beaconchain.
So how does the slashing work now? If they are caught, the protocol can ask Eigenlayer to slash the restaker. Eigenlayer right now has a "slashing committee" (my term, don't know if that's the real name of it). This committee basically checks if the restaker really misbehaved and if the slashing request is fair. So right now a protocol can't just slash you as a restaker, there is a (centralized!) security mechanism in place.
If the restaker indeed attacked the network, they can't withdraw their LSTs and the LSTs are slashed. If they have a validator right now (!) no one can force them to exit the validator, so they can continue validating Ethereum. But when they want to exit, they will withdraw to the eigenpod and then the Eigenlayer protocol can slash the portion that is supposed to be slashed before the restaker can withdraw the rest.
I don't know what happens to the assets that are being slashed. Maybe someone can add that? Are those burned? Going to the protocol that did the slashing? (That would be a strange incentive, but maybe that's the case)
So where does the yield come from?
First of all: There is no yield by just depositing. Only if you start securing one (or more) protocols, you will receive yield. This also means that right now there is only smart contract risk, no slashing etc.
This yield is what these protocols offer to restakers for their service securing the new protocol. It can be paid in different tokens (or a mix). Could be new issuance. Could be from their treasury. Could be part of the fees they make with the product running on top.
---
But Benido, this all sounds great, I was told Eigenlayer is a huge risk, I don't get it, that is like risk free yield on top of risk free yield?
If you were around in spring of 2022, you might remember 3AC (Three Arrows Capital). They were long when the market was going down and at one point lending firms ask for more capital from 3AC. What did 3AC do? They used the same collateral over and over again. So what happened? All lending firms found out that the collateral they thought they could liquidate ("slash") was posted as collateral with other lenders as well. 3AC basically "restaked" the same collateral over and over again. No lending firm could liquidate the collateral and they all went tits up, the whole market crashed and it was a dark time...
Of course this was off chain and Eigenlayer is onchain. With restaking we know how many times a certain asset is used to secure a certain protocol. But in the end something similar could happen. Deposit asset X once, attack several protocols and all protocols find out that they can't slash, because it was slashed already.
On top we could see borrowing and lending protocols that allow LRTs (Liquid Restaking Tokens) to be deposited. So an attacker could even borrow against it to acquire more and attack cheaply...
Using the same collateral several times is something that can be abused. Yes, it's onchain, so more transparent, but that doesn't make it bullet proof. We will witness attacks. This might lead to a cascade of liquidations and could take down so many protocols... and always remember: These assets started as stake to secure Ethereum, in a worst case scenario ETH's security might be diminished and attacks might be possible in ways we can't even imagine today.
---
I hope this explains restaking, but it might just be more confusing because I am missing things, the structure sucks etc., I don't know. If you have questions, post them!
u/alexiskef introduces POAP Global, a cool new use case!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ahp76i/daily_general_discussion_february_3_2024/kosf4nd/)Exciting news for the POAP enthusiasts!
Poap Global, a project which is not officially related to POAP but rather a community project that utilizes the POAP tools, just had their official launch!
(Before publishing this comment, I asked Patricio Worthalter, the POAP founder, regarding the projects legitimacy, and he gave me a thumbs-up: "Yes! We support them. The founder is a valued member of the official POAP curation body. This is a side gig")
So, I went through their website and will try to explain what they are, and what it is that they are launching!
What is Poap Global? It's a "a groundbreaking extension of the proof of attendance protocol concept operated by hodl labs. Imagine being part of a worldwide irl scavenger hunt. Only in this game, the treasures are unique digital collectibles at every landmark, and the playground is planet earth"
How do you participate? "You can either “host” a poap at a location of your choice or travel and collect other people’s poaps!"
Hosts
You can 'host' a poap at a location of your choosing. Whether it's a favorite hiking trail, a landmark, or a hidden gem in your city, you can make it a part of this global game.
So, how can you be a "Host"? Well, there are 3 steps:
- Submit location. You first choose a landmark, then design a POAP and submit it..
- Purchase a POAP NFC dispenser from their store. This is designed to be installed in proximity to your selected landmark. Visitors will be able to tap their phone against the nfc to instantly receive your special poap for that location.
- Program dispenser. When you first receive your dispenser you will be given a menu to select your approved poap and program it to the nfc.
There is also a Global Leaderboard (in the works) to "showcase top explorers and collectors", and a "dynamic globe that pinpoints where all the poaps are hidden".
Collectors
As a traveler and explorer, you can embark on a journey to collect poaps from various locations hosted by others. It’s a digital treasure hunt that takes you to new and exciting places.
The idea seems to be a perfect use-case on how to further utilize the POAP protocol. I jumped right in and bought a small number of the NFC dispensers.. I plan to "install" them at my home town center and at my local sports teams' soccer grounds..
u/_WebOfTrust shares their experience as a newcomer to running a node
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aigxis/daily_general_discussion_february_4_2024/kowmneb/)Folks here understand and are comfortable running an ethereum node but sharing my learning and experience in running a non-staking node.
There is a learning curve and documentation needs some improvement, knowledge is silod within discord and in some case you are at the mercy of support from dev team. I learned a lot, definetly more comfortable sharing and talking about different clients, node and confident that I can help someone strugling with running a node. This was a test run on my Pi, waiting for proper hardware to test the script again.
Without the support and motivation from the members of this wholesome community, I would not have considered heading in this direction. So, thank you, my dudes.
u/superphiz gives some sound advice around taking worthwhile risks
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aigxis/daily_general_discussion_february_4_2024/koxv56l/)Naw, this is pretty wise, even though it means you won't get an early participant advantage IF restaking is successful.
In 2009, people who took a risk on bitcoin did well.
In 2014, people who took a risk on Ether tokens did well.
In 2015, people who took a risk on The DAO we're bailed out in a one-time network fork.
In 2017, people who invested in ICOs like EOS lost lots of money on products that never materialized.
There's really no way to say what will happen with restaking. I'm not convinced that there's a large enough market to support what's being built- maybe it will develop or maybe it'll just trend toward other solutions. All of this is a risk and it's wise to wait and see. As I've said publicly, I'm okay missing a huge win, and I'm going into all of these opportunities with a total of about 1% of my coins. I'm okay with any outcome.
I can sense that a lot of my investment-oriented friends think I'm just being negative, but I'm here for the long term success of Ethereum, not the flavor of the week. Just be who you are 😊
u/Ethical-trade shares some great news on the client diversity front!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aj9j2n/daily_general_discussion_february_5_2024/kp08zmw/)Green day on the client diversity front!
A month ago, Geth's market share was 84%, yesterday it was 78%, today it is 73%.
And also good news, the 5% difference between yesterday and today went to Nethermind, which makes the execution layer clients list as follows:
Geth - 73%
Besu - 14%
Nethermind - 12%
Erigon - 2%
I've not been able to identify the provider(s) that kept their words but I'm hoping one of our experts will soon be able to tell.
u/austonst shares Vitalik's latest EthResearch post on the gas limit
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aj9j2n/daily_general_discussion_february_5_2024/kp4lj3x/)Toni and Vitalik put together an ethresear.ch post on increasing the block gas limit. This topic had moment in the spotlight a few weeks ago when Vitalik suggested we might be able to handle a block size increase and kicked off a flood of discussion. I haven't seen as much social media fuss recently, but with this post we're getting into the research of if to do it, and how to do so safely. Their strategy for increasing the gas limit? Decreasing it first! Kinda.
The trouble is that large blocks are possibly an issue today, even without an increase. There's a great figure in the post showing that reorged blocks tended to be almost two times larger (in bytes) than blocks that get finalized. Discussion about confounding factors aside, it does seem to suggest that a naive gas limit increase would hurt consensus health.
But block size comes in a distribution. The biggest blocks are a problem, but the median block size is 14.5x smaller than the maximum possible, very conservatively low. So what Toni and Vitalik are aiming to do is decrease the maximum block size and reduce variance so that we can safely increase the average block size.
With blobs coming up soon, the central idea is to increase the gas cost of calldata, the current way of getting data to the EVM. Increasing the gas cost of calldata means that blocks can hold less before they fill up, so we get a reduction in max block size. Then we could feel safe increasing the gas limit somewhat, presumably making space for more EVM execution, rather than data storage, to occur. And possibly make room for more blobs per slot.
The post has 5 different suggestions for how to do this. Personally, I like multi-dimensional EIP-1559 with a separate market for calldata, but the post argues that may be overly complex.
u/Set1Less warns us about a bad experience with a certain smart wallet
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1aj9j2n/daily_general_discussion_february_5_2024/kp23kga/)After many years in crypto. I seem to have run into the first instance of "losing" my wallet which is an account abstraction wallet from Particle Network(Ally.build created for the Linea tasks) created through signing in with email or twitter/discord, but Im unable to recover it for whatever reason. Apparently I may have used a different email or social account but I doubt that - I have tried logging back in with all my accounts and various combos, but it only loads a brand new wallet and not the ones which had the funds in it. The particle network discord is filled with people complaining about losing access to their wallet and the only reply they are getting is "read faq"
If you are a crypto native, using an AA wallet seems rather pointless - not only does it create a dependancy on a centralized wallet provider (another example is people losing access to Argent) but also bugs and or glitches can lead to you losing your wallet
Update: Particle wallet seems to be extremely poorly designed. There are multiple channels on their discord with people complaining about being unable to access their funds. Seems signing in with the original social media/email account sometimes results in a brand new wallet being created, and not the earlier wallet that was in use and funded by users. Whats worse is that the team is not willing to accept there is an issue, but instead seem to hold their ground that everything is working as expected - despite hundreds of users complaining about being locked out of their wallets. The fact that so many people have the same issue in accessing their wallet at the very least requires the wallet team to look at the issue more closely, instead of firing off "Read FAQ" template messages...
Its shameful that Linea are using such operators for points scheme where scores of users are unable to even access the wallet they created earlier.
At this point I can only warn others from using any wallet related to Particle network including Ally.Build
u/696_eth starts a discussion about securing your stack
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ak2vf5/daily_general_discussion_february_6_2024/kp9mmkd/)Caught up on the last few dayllies and I've seen a feel people lose a lot. Can we talk about securing our bags a bit and thinking of how to avoid losing the entire stack? yes, it's an unpleasant to thing to think about but I'd rather do it and not get rekt completely.
I'll start with some of the things that I do and remember off the top of my head and feel free to chime in w others.
-
Whenever the link is needed, especially important for airdrop claims or something big money related, go to the official source and even 2 to double check rather than clicking on whatever you see or someone sent you.
-
If somebody or something is rushing you to make a decision quickly - quite likely it is a scam. Even if it's not a scam, you are losing out on a potential opportunity (no matter how gen wealth that opportunity is) but saving your bags. If you still have the bags then you can capitalize on future opportunities.
-
Don't download anything that's given to you in the crypto world. Sometimes people dm me with links and even trusted people and I tell them I wouldnt download any files even if I trust them cause what if they got hacked and now somebody is targeting me.
u/SikhSoldiers shares his latest write up about RocketPool
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1akw42k/daily_general_discussion_february_7_2024/kpg2ovy/)It has been a long time since I've made a top level post here it feels like. Alas, that's what medical school does to a person. I am back to share with everyone my first major writing piece in over a year -
Hybrid Theory: Rocket Pool's Middle Way Between Native Liquid Restaking and Pure Staking.
The Rocket Pool pDAO will soon be voting on allowing, alterning, or denying my proposed integration bounty. This essay outlines why I think it's a good idea for Rocket Pool, Eigenlayer, and Ethereum writ large.
The broad idea is that we can enable node operators to join Eigenlayer without adding risk to rETH holders if we integrate in a way that retains senior debt for rocket pool. I dub this hybrid restaking. The essay goes through all the different ways people can restake today and outlines their flaws.
Hybrid restaking enables permsionless node operators to be sustainably profit maxi without harming rETH. Rocket Pool node operators could experience many airdrops and yield from different AVS services.
I am happy to answer any (sincere) questions.
https://mirror.xyz/jasperthefriendlyghost.eth/Xv7lLt8SVTfCaFnVie50IvvFrI4-TkQTgZcxb\_omEnA
Week #54: February 2, 2024
Special guest Lucas from PODS, a new way to publish, discover, and own your favorite podcasts.
Announcements
- Vote on this poll for an updated subreddit policy on referral links.
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1agwsik/comment/kojxh9g/)Ethereum
$2307.80
0.0536
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ado855/comment/kk685pr/)The hacker running,
While the tables are turning,
Ether is burning.
Shitpost of the week: u/SeaMonkey82
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19f2ia2/daily_general_discussion_january_25_2024/kjlt7gp/)Every day thousands of validators are forced to toil away in centralized server farms under the dangerous working conditions of using a supermajority execution layer client. For just 32 ETH, you can give a validator a home and keep their stake safe from harm. Please give today.
u/superphiz updates us on client diversity moves and the Ethfinanciers who are helping us to track the situation. And u/alexiskef chimes in with a positive reply after putting pressure on Consensys.
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1abbg8a/daily_general_discussion_january_26_2024/kjn17qc/)You should know that the tide toward client diversity is changing dramatically. I'd like to thank the folks who have supported this work and those who have provided great updates here and I'd 100% encourage you to continue engaging in that community service role.
On January 22, 2024, Brian Armstrong from Coinbase responded to DCInvestor to say that he was taking a look at client diversity within Coinbase's staking operation and they'll report back in February. If they continue to suggest that other clients aren't mature enough, we'll wonder why Coinbase is utilizing open source software without contributing back to the code base as would be expected.
AllNodes, p2p.org, and Anker announced switching to minority clients within the past 24 hours. This switch is a great illustration of how efficiently large operations CAN shift clients if they choose to. The value of these victories, and the contributions by their respective contributors cannot be overstated. Thank you, Allnodes, P2P.org and Anker.
After an initially tone deaf defense, Stakefish seems to be changing its tune a bit, but despite a reference to the responsibility of client diversity, there's little apparent commitment to make real changes, so lets watch this one closely.
Lido operators represent the largest group of validator operators, and our data suggests that they're still highly reliant on geth. /u/yorickdowne has been a great advocate for decentralization from within lido, as a node operator for reducing the supermajority client, but the push hasn't been very successful yet. I'm optimistic that at some point they'll act in their own best interest.
Hanni Abu's ClientDiversity.org is our best view into client diversity, and the execution client data currently sourced by word of mouth. While I look forward to more and better data, I deeply appreciate and value this source.
I'd like to send good vibes to everyone who is working on this front, groups like EthStaker, led by /u/nixorokish, Jasper the Friendly Ghost, who is pouring his passion into this [and I sure af hope he's still thriving in med school], and Anthony Sassano who, through The Daily Gwei, beats this drum CONTINUOUSLY, also /u/interweaver for reaching out to providers and educating about the risks of a majoriy client fault. And perhaps the biggest thanks to /u/hanniabu through EtherAlpha who tirelessly develops data that enables all of us to see the threats ahead of us. Without his efforts we'd be flying blind toward a black hole.
None of this even mentions the deep and detailed academic work and research going into client diversity. Thanks to /u/haurog for providing insight into the academic and EIP efforts.
For my part, I'm continuing to go back to home stakers as the best future for the network. Giving lots of control of the network to third parties with little or nothing at stake is dangerous and undermines the goal of a decentralized network. If you have any way to stake from home, as a solo staker, Rocket Pool operator, DVT operator - whatever - I really encourage you to do that.
I've started a very [very] basic document to help us track these events, please feel free to hop in and help develop it as you see fit.
😊 More good news on the client diversity front!
About 4 days ago, both u/0xboba and myself (following the news that 🦊/Consensys have began offering their users the ability to stake through their "own" validators), were wondering if anyone knew which Execution (and Consensus) clients Consensys Metamask Staking are using..
So, I contacted Consensys, who directed me to 🦊 support.. I asked the following:
"What are the client combinations (EL/CL) that my validators will be running? I understand from some (very) basic information the MM Staking web page provides, that you "operate diverse validator clients and distributed infrastructure hosted across multiple regions and cloud providers”, but in light of the recent software bugs in Besu and Nethermind, I need to know that my capital is not at risk by depending on a super-majority client like Geth"
They answered by just pointing me to some vague articles on their support page.. I pressed on, asking for details, and they just answered!
"As a company, Consensys is deeply committed to client diversity: we are developing an Execution Layer client (BESU) and a Consensus Layer client (Teku). Consensys Staking infrastructure uses an algorithm to distribute validators across multiple Execution and Consensus Layer clients. On the consensus layer, we run 2 clients for validator duties: Teku and Lighthouse. Our algorithm allocates new validators to Teku or Lighthouse to maintain a 50%-50% split between Teku and Lighthouse across the entire platform. On the execution layer, we currently run the majority of Geth. Our top priority is to increase BESU's footprint: we aim to reach 50% of BESU in the coming weeks before the end of February. After the Merge, Consensys Staking evaluated the use of BESU and provided feedback and support to improve performances, in order to optimise rewards for End Users. The BESU team worked tirelessly, releasing new features such as a fully flat state DB and other improvements that bring BESU much closer to Geth performances. We started BESU rollout across our platform and will iteratively increase BESU's footprint to reach 50% of all validators we operate before the end of February 2024*. This progressive rollout aims to ensure no or limited performance degradation for our users. Beyond client diversity, Consensys Staking validators are distributed across 2 clouds (Azure, AWS) and 6 regions (2 in the US, 2 in Europe and 2 in Asia)"*
😊
u/nixorokish reviews the Keystone hardware wallet and u/alexiskef also chimes in with a review.
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ac3zs6/daily_general_discussion_january_27_2024/kjui3k7/)i tried out the keystone hardware wallet and wrote up some thoughts on it: https://twitter.com/nixorokish/status/1751319725274214825
i had more criticisms than praise and feel pretty lukewarm on it
summary:
- typo on the verification screen indicates a lack of attention to detail to me
- couldn't get software update to work on web. could have tried the SD card method but then i would have had to go find my SD card converter thingy and i couldn't be bothered. So instead of using frame, which is what i would normally use, i just decided to try out Rabby
- too much QR back and forth. probably mobile-wallet friendly but when i'm using a desktop software wallet, it is an absolute pain in the butt that all the keystone stuff is just QR codes. there's no way to scan a QR code with my computer when i'm trying to send some test money from my coinbase account
- refresh rate feels janky. scrolling isn't easy on the eyes
- the screen is easily scratched
- there's not a clear point to start from on the screen. it basically defaults to a settings page, where you can add more wallets and chains. i wish there were a dashboard type of screen where you could see all existing wallets instead of having to click "Ethereum" first to see your Ethereum wallets. i guess maybe that's just me as an ETH maxi though, I'm likely not going to have any other chains to click on in the near future
I doooo like
- the constant haptic feedback (i think this is an optional setting)
- the size of the screen and device itself
- clear signing page
- biometrics (fingerprint) to unlock and sign txs
kinda wanna try the Hito next. what i REALLY want is for Grid+ to make a smaller, travel-friendly wallet
Huh! I actually saw your comment during Xmas (the one telling us you were going to try it..) and.. bought one right there and then!
I was actually meaning to ask you about your initial impression!
Personally, I have been more than happy with it. To the point where it has replaced my Ledger play-money wallet!
I too encountered an initial software upgrade problem, but everything worked at my second attempt.
I see what you mean with the too-much-QR codes, however that IS how the device works.. And on that note, I'll add that both the scanning by the device (of the laptop QR) AND the blurred scanning by my laptop (of the wallet QRs), works flawlessly and super fast.. I find myself going through txs much faster than with my Ledger..
I do agree with you on the "start page" point. It IS quite confusing. I too initially wanted an "anchor" type of screen. Possibly (as you said), with a clear list of my wallets..
However, after reading more on the way the device works, I came across the article which explains the security provisions for multiple wallets.. The device loads each wallet with a different (seed phrase) AND pin. And you can only have one wallet active.. This is quite logical, as only YOU know the number of wallets (seed phrases) that are loaded (but hidden). This wouldn't be possible with an "anchor" screen.. And even if users did not care for all their wallets to be listed on that screen, they'd still need to input a (different) pin, each and every time they went back onto that screen and selected a wallet..
My screen has not been scratched so far, but I do see your point here.. I am very (too..) careful while using and storing it.. I already ordered the pouch from their website..
I do also like the screen size, the clear signing info, and most importantly the biometrics..
One other thing I have to add, is that I got really really confused when trying to connect it to my (already Ledger-connected) Metamask extension.. As in super confused..
So I downloaded Rabby (thank you u/superphiz), and started fresh.. Everything made sense right there..
u/pa7x1 clarifies the fact that not all slashing is equal.
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ac3zs6/daily_general_discussion_january_27_2024/kjsdhlc/)Most people confuse the different penalties the protocol may apply, because we tend to be a bit lazy with the penalties and call everything slashing. But there are different penalties. Slashing is just one of them and is almost impossible to trigger by a bug. And even when it happens due to operator mistake it slashes for 1 ETH. Just so you can see it directly, here is a very recent slashing.
https://beaconcha.in/validator/1061987
This validator lost 1 ETH (and a bit extra due to missed attestations after, but rounds to nothing) and is exited. But if there had been a mass slashing affecting many people, then the correlation penalty and inactivity leak kicks in, that's what can take you to total loss of capital.
So as I was thinking about it these days I noticed that mixing all the penalties under slashing might be partly why we have supermajority issues. Nobody wants to lose money for something they don't have control of. Much like people tend to fear traveling in airplanes more because the situation is out of your control. So losing your stack because of a bug you have no responsibility of is avoided, and everyone flocks to the client that is perceived safest.
But this is the wrong mental model of the network penalties, the network is not gonna punish you for uncorrelated issues because it's designed to work under imperfect conditions. So this doesn't really bother the network. If you have a bug with a very minor client you may be offline and missing attestations a few hours, maybe a day. That's nothing, penalties for that are very small. You would need to be 60% of the year offline to lose money for inactivity. That's how small those penalties are, a few hours here and there is not even something you can feel.
But if it loses at least 1/3 of the validators then the protocol gets pissed, because it cannot fulfill its duties. And then punishes, and can punish very heavily. The penalties here are the inactivity leak and the correlation penalty. This is what you should fear.
So the TL;DR of the story is that you shouldn't fear client bugs per se. You should fear having the same bug as many people, that's what triggers severe penalties. And the good news is that you have total control over it. You have the choice to not suffer significant loss of capital. It's entirely on you. Choose minority clients.
u/HairyGuch made a website outlining the latest Ethereum roadmap.
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1acvrm9/daily_general_discussion_january_28_2024/kjzptbz/)Hey all. After Vitalik's roadmap update, I took a stab at putting all the relevant information I knew of in a single place. Some of the sections remain a WIP, but I'm mostly happy with the layout.
I'm looking for feedback (or even contributors) to help make it better. I have thick skin so feel free to let her rip.
What's not here that you think would be useful? How would you like to see each section fleshed out more?
u/interweaver shares Rocket School needing some final touches before launch and shares a sneak peek then shifts the focus onto the next hardfork
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ado855/daily_general_discussion_january_29_2024/kk5m62v/)Do you run Rocket Pool minipools? Or are you interested in learning how to do so? EVMavericks have spent the past year and a half building Rocket School, a video course about Rocket Pool, and we need your help reviewing or testing it!
See the main post in r/ethstaker here: https://reddit.com/r/ethstaker/comments/1ae56h9/do_you_run_rocket_pool_minipools_or_are_you/
I would highly recommend anyone interested in Ethereum's upcoming upgrades read Christine Kim's notes on this week's ACDC call. They contain a fantastic review of some of the EIPs under consideration for the Prague/Electra small-feature hardfork currently being targeted from the end of 2024, prior to the Verkle fork coming after it.
Only a few relatively small (but important) EIPs have been tentatively scheduled for inclusion; some of the slightly larger ticket items are still under debate, mostly because client devs believe including them would push Prague/Electra into 2025.
https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/ethereum-all-core-developers-consensus-call-126/
u/LogrisTheBard shines a light on the darker side of this space
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1ado855/daily_general_discussion_january_29_2024/kk6dv9i/)I usually think of the minimum requirements for a PoW system as:
-
There is basically infinite work to do. We can't have the consensus of the chain halt because it's waiting for work to arrive.
-
Anyone can do work and submit a proof of that work for verification. If this was limited to known entities they could form a cabal that halt or at least slow the chain at will.
-
Anyone can verify/validate how much work was done objectively (at least statistically). We have to be able to reach consensus on how much to reward each miner. Again, anonymity and open access prevents effective conspiracies.
-
Validation takes far less time than it took to do the work. A system that relies on massive redundant computation for consensus will have to compensate too much per unit work done to be economically effective in the long run (looking at you Bitcoin).
In my previous post I talked about GenSyn which swapped out useless hashing for useful model training and the economic potential of such a solution. AI training just happens to be a task that meets all these criteria. There is basically infinite demand for AI training. I can think of a few other tasks such as protein folding (folding at home) or private key cracking but most computational tasks don't meet these criteria and even some of those that do wouldn't have much economic value. As such, while Gensyn seemed to have a neat idea, it didn't seem to be a paradigm shift so much as a cool footnote in history. However, what happens if we relax requirement 3 a bit and allow for subjective consensus?
"But Logris, what the hell is subjective consensus?" Glad you asked! Basically it's group think for deciding on things with no objective answer. The most common example of this is every oracle you've ever known. Smart contracts can only refer to chain state. They can't see BTC price feeds on Kraken for example. All data that is off-chain is subjective from the perspective of the chain. Consensus on that data is decided subjectively by oracles. But not all oracles work alike. Chainlink is optimized for a small number of data streams with high liveness. UMA is optimized for the long-tail of queries with latency that can be measured in days.
The interesting part about UMA in my opinion is they apply a commit-reveal scheme and use stake to keep people honest. All participants submit their data in an encrypted way before a deadline, then submit the decryption keys for that data after the deadline when no answer can be changed. The do something like average the result and people with answers too far from the mean lose some of their stake. The obvious Schelling point for a submission is the truth. Expecting the average to be anything but that requires a conspiracy of submitters to distort the data. Unless you believe such a conspiracy exists, the rational answer to submit is the truest one you can find. All you're really doing is measuring what you believe everyone else will believe, but in practice this works well when there is an objective answer rather than something either unknown or disputed. You could imagine how this could be used for anything: "Did Trump lose the 2020 election?". I expect you'd get a very different answer if you shoved that question through this system than if you polled the average US voter. Honestly, I expect you'd get a better one.
So what would happen if you applied something like UMA consensus to a PoW blockchain? Addressing the points above in order.
-
You would still need a stream of continuous work for miners to do. Either that work has to be submitted by validators or it needs to be self-evident to miners. Nothing here says the work has to actually be useful, just eventually verifiable.
-
You still need permissionless mining but if the work isn't self-evident the network may need some type of sampling to throttle the participants which means you'll need miner stake for Sybil resistance.
-
Validation would still be permissionless but validators would definitely need stake for subjective consensus to function.
-
This is basically unchanged but I will note that nothing says payouts in a blockchain have to be immediate. It's totally fine if people receive their payout a couple days later. That said, you want consensus to happen continuously so you probably want each participant running a program rather than manually voting.
What types of tasks could you now do that you previously couldn't have? In order of least to highest villainy:
-
Miners provide DePIn resources like data availability; Validators validate using data sampling.
-
Miners submit a predictive price of the S&P 500 for the next day; Validators grade it retroactively. If this ever gets competitive it will distort global markets as large players buy and sell to make their predictions come true.
If you're willing to have the validators create synthetic work to fill in any gaps as well:
- Break web2 Sybil resistance. Full multi-model media. Solve Captchas for bots so they can break into accounts easier. Create fake videos and images for KYC for identity thieves. Create explicit photos of Taylor Swift and distribute them on a data availability layer. Create Fake news for Russia to destroy democracies. Entirely peer to peer and anonymously. Destroy society as we know it.
"But Logris, who would create such an evil thing?" Glad you asked! Before you say this is far-fetched and sounds terrible, this is in principle the concept of BitTensor. So, uh, this is happening today and the payouts right now are about $25M a day. Just your heads up that we're heading into hell!
I know you like the darker stuff /u/nixorokish so here you go!
u/OkDragonfruit1929 introduces one of the up and coming execution clients, Silkworm
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1afauzq/daily_general_discussion_january_31_2024/kobrpgb/)Because of the recent push for client diversity, I've been researching a few of the alpha and pre-alpha EL clients in the works, and the Silkworm Ethereum client has me really excited. I'm always looking out for new and innovative projects that can push the technology forward.
Silkworm aims to be the fastest Ethereum client while still maintaining high code quality and readability. That combination really appeals to me - performance without sacrificing robustness or security. The fact that it builds on top of the well-regarded geth/Erigon codebase, but uses a completely different programming language gives me confidence that the developers know what they're doing.
I also like Silkworm's use of more modern C++ standards and the libmdbx database engine. Adopting C++20 features and leveraging a high-performance embedded database seems like a recipe for speed.
I'm eager to try it out once testnet builds are available. The documentation around building and testing Silkworm locally is already pretty good.
Overall, I think the team has laid out a compelling technical vision with Silkworm. If they can deliver on faster sync and execution times without reducing decentralization or security, it could be a big win for Ethereum. I'll be following the project closely as it develops.
u/cheeky-gorilla shares Tim Beiko's recent proposal
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1afauzq/daily_general_discussion_january_31_2024/koak5vd/)Tim Beiko published the "Protocol Guild Pledge" yesterday, his quantitative framing for why projects built on Ethereum should donate 1% of their tokens to help onboard and retain Ethereum's unbelievably talented core protocol contributors:
https://tim.mirror.xyz/srVdVopOFhD_ZoRDR50x8n5wmW3aRJIrNEAkpyQ4_ng
For those who prefer to watch/listen, a great summary by Anthony Sassano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlSaGTDtDXA&t=715s
Tim's announcement was front-run by Ether.fi, announcing they'd allocate 1% of their upcoming token to the Guild, and there are a few other (major) projects who are waiting in the wings to make the same announcement! 👀
If you know of any projects that would like to host Protocol Guild for a community call or Spaces, please feel free to DM me here or Twitter or Farcaster!
u/proof-of-lake shares some thoughts on points
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1afauzq/daily_general_discussion_january_31_2024/kobkudg/)IMO, points have been developing a bad rep mostly for nothing.
(Though I will say, there are two fairly different approaches, and one is worse than the other).
What's good about points:
-they let teams be explicit about the sorts of user behaviour they want (to drive adoption or growth)
-they allow teams to evolve and develop those goals in a way that supports real-time testing and feedback (so for example, "how will user behaviour change if we tweak these variables and incentives?")
-they give teams a chance to "claw back" or change these metrics quite rapidly if needed (something that is harder to do if a token incentive program is already live and running)
-they reduce Sybil airdrop farming because they generally relate to actual capital (x time) being put in, or at least, to behaviours that are deemed desirable and useful by the protocol team
-they give users who are keen to pursue a token allocation some transparency, prior to token generation (meaning you can see where you sit overall relative to other users, and you know what behaviours will be "rewarded" and whether your time and effort is being well directed).
For all these reasons, points seem to me to be (on balance) a logical development that has mostly been positive.
However - what I will say is that it begins to cross the line once too much gamification is brought in. By this I mean instances in which teams make their points program too complex, too casino-like, and too demanding: countless fancy ranks and tiers, NFTs and badges, quests, pointless or tangential tasks (daily check-ins??) super aggressive referral programs, etc.
These are the ones that (to me) feel exploitative and annoying. I'd sadly put EtherFi in this category, even though I think the team is legit and the core product makes sense. Orbiter has trended this way too.
Eigenlayer's points, on the other hand, look simple, justifiable and useful.
So next time you're thinking about points, start by asking - what's the point? Sometimes there is one! ...but to any devs out there - don't make it a carnival game, please.
A Huge shoutout to u/Twelvemeatballs for preparing our substidoots 🍎 and maintaining the impeccable use of emoji shorthand ✏️ while Tricky_Troll was on the frontlines ⛺️
Credit to u/usesbinkvideo for the gem of a suggestion "Put that name on a McDonald's nametag for him"🍟
Week #53: January 26, 2024
Special guest Kevin Owocki joins us from Gitcoin and Green Pill, a network-society that exports regenerative digital infrastructure to the world.
Announcements
- 🎉 u/LogrisTheBard surpasses 100 daily doots! 🎉
Upcoming Guests
- Feb. 2 - Lucas of Pods
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1abbg8a/comment/kjme4jj/)Ethereum
$2225
0.055
89,046 hodlers subscribed (+12)
497d since The Merge
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19cou8k/daily_general_discussion_january_22_2024/kj3hn40/)Seek consistency,
More client diversity,
Bring persistency.
Shitpost of the week: u/Ethsomesense
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19bwkm1/daily_general_discussion_january_21_2024/kiv0jz1/)When you were partying, I studied the blade. When you were having premarital sex, I mastered the blockchain. While you wasted your days on crypto twitter in pursuit of vanity, I farmed eigenlayer points. And now that the world is on fire and the soylana manlets are at the gate you have the audacity to come to me for airdrops.
u/breeezyyyy is really grateful for this community
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/199j5zi/daily_general_discussion_january_18_2024/kife94h/)Good Morning. I just wanted to say how truly grateful I am for this group from the bottom of my heart.
The folks in here are caring, sincere, curious, and hungry for the truth. In this world we live in, it's really a rarity to have this quality of human concentrated in one place.
Yesterday I got hacked through my own fault and signed off-chain approval for 2 assets that were drained from my wallet. This was my first time being scammed/hacked.
Somehow, they also managed to pay down a significant portion of my USDC debt [huzzah!] from my AAVE position by withdrawing/paying out to get my ETH- so it did not end up being completely catastrophic. I still don't fully understand what happened with this piece of the puzzle.
No less than 8-10 people reached out, offered help, pointed me in the right direction, and that means the world to me. I know I'm not getting the tokens back.
Last night I wrapped my head around what happened and tossed back a bunch of beers with friends in real life--nothing like joking about it to get over it mentally.
Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone in here that makes this such an amazing community.
u/waqwaqattack shares a RocketPool update
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19ac5xh/daily_general_discussion_january_19_2024/kiltktx/)I'm here with a new Rocket Pool update!
A few weeks ago, I mentioned the process for new tokenomics had started. We were looking for (and still are, I guess) submissions, and we got over 20! These range from changing collateral systems, new RPL rewards dynamics, MEV theft protections, and much more.
A new committee to analyze the submissions has been created with 5 members. You're welcome to follow along (and provide feedback on the submissions if you are interested). There are three community members and two team members. They will inspect every submission, rank them, and make suggestions. This process is expected to take place over the next few weeks.
Next, it is likely the new tokenomics will be a blend of the outstanding submissions. We already have one community member share ideas on what they think the new tokenomics for Rocket Pool might look like. This is all still very early, though, and there are going to be many changes and suggestions in the coming weeks.
This whole process has been hugely exciting (for tokenomics nerds like me haha). I'll let you all know what the outstanding submissions were once we get some clarity on that and what direction the next steps will take.
u/Tricky_Troll discusses the ethics of airdrop farming, u/superphiz and many other provide great responses
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19b4wii/daily_general_discussion_january_20_2024/kipwmck/)I’m curious as to people’s thoughts on the ethics of airdrop farming after a discussion I had deep in replies yesterday.
Firstly, I have two airdrop farming wallets. I try to stick to projects I like and not get too degenerate. This helps it feel legitimate to me as the original airdrop idea was to give shares and a stake in the platform out to the community. But two wallets? A true sybil resistant system would call me out for that and either penalise me or only reward me once. Is having two wallets being greedy? Maybe. Personally it feels like a rational balance between the following:
-
Fighting airdrop farmers with dozens or hundreds of wallets who might be diluting my share.
-
Not blatantly farming/sybil attacking the drop mechanism.
-
Not spending too much mental and financial overhead speculating on something which may not happen.
On the other hand, to me, the idea of having a dozen wallets or more to farm an airdrop feels wrong. The developers will set a certain amount tokens to the community and if you game their mechanisms and qualify on 10 wallets, then you get 10 slices of the pie instead of 1. This adds 9 more slices to the pie than an anti-sybil minded developer would have ideally intended. Since this has no effect on the total number of tokens in the airdrop, your sybil wallets have eaten into the size of the slices of everyone else. In short, airdrop distributions are a zero sum game and more tokens for you means less for someone else.
Now I'm not trying to virtue signal or shame anyone for having 10 wallets. There's no ethical code about how much free money someone is entitled to. Furthermore, there is a justifiable and rational argument that since others are sybil attacking, you need to too. After all, you’re not eating into the average Joe’s piece of the pie, you’re eating into the faceless big airdrop farm in China with 1,000 wallets run by a computer program. At the end of the day, it is the developer’s job to ensure that the distribution is sybil resistant and makes it to the community and not the spammers.
This is in the same vein of human coordination problems we face with MEV — an arms race appears to capture economic value as no amount of virtue signalling and solo stalkers opting to build their own blocks will be enough coordination to stop rational actors from doing what makes the most economic sense. In fact, being virtuous just leaves more profit for the “bad” and less values driven actors. So with that said, does that make being virtuous and leaving more value on the table actively counter productive for our values? In the bigger picture, this is why we need things like proposer-builder separation. To remove as many of these mechanisms of value capture which involve some kind of arms race. This is because in these areas of competitive value capture, there is almost always a centralising force over time towards those who are the most successful and in some cases, the most brutal with their tactics (see block proposal timing games for the latest development here).
To get back on the original topic, why two wallets? I guess it's just the way I was raised to not be too greedy or selfish in a zero sum game. As I said above, I’d be taking more from someone else’s slice. But on the other hand, I’m not lost in an idealistic world. The rational side of my brain sees how the game theory plays out and says farm that airdrop and take a slice out of the big boys’ pie as they’d only spend the money on stupid things anyway. So here I am, somewhere in the middle. I’m definitely putting effort into farming airdrops and with 2 wallets, maybe taking a larger slice than I’m fairly entitled to. However, it is still less than I could get if I really wanted more.
All this is probably a similar reason to why I just want a house in the countryside somewhere and not a gazillion rental properties, a ferrari and a yacht. I would get very marginal enjoyment out of such fancy things and that marginal enjoyment nowhere near equates to the amount of good for others which those millions of dollars could do if they were put to more productive work. After all, spending money tells society where to put its effort. Collectively we get much more from feeding and housing people than we do from vroom vroom shiny car go fast. But still, even 90% of the world aren’t lucky enough to own their own home and live in a safe, stable, country. So at this rate I’ll likely be getting a bigger slice than I’d be fairly entitled to if the world’s resources were split evenly. But in the situation I have been fortunate enough to find myself in, I don’t feel overly greedy and I hope that’s good enough.
Anyway, thanks for reading me share my thought process. I learned a bit just trying to articulate this. So let me know, where do you lie on the scale of u/Superphiz to hyper-capitalist rational actor? Or what are your thoughts on any of the above. In the end this discussion covered way more than I thought it would.
No flowery preamble because my wife is demanding that I get in the shower for a day trip. I do adore you in so many ways tricky, and I'm honored that you consider my positions and our alignment. Here are too many bullet points that will definitely make me late for the shower.
-
I don't want anyone to exaggerate my wholesomeness and assume that I am too "good" to airdrop farm or use multiple accounts. I definitely have and will continue to use multiple accounts if it appears that those mundane actions will increase my qualifications for an airdrop.
-
In general, I see airdrops differently than other people. I don't typically view airdrops as a benefit to the end recipient, but as a combination of a VC liquidity tool, or an engagement farming technique that allows startups to more easily create a case to VC for additional funding or valuation. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you're probably not abusing the airdrop, but in most cases I think the airdrop is taking advantage of you by farming you. They're trying to pump key metrics through farming user activities, this lets them prove to VC that their platform really is worth funding.
-
My recent pushback against points is along this vein - if you're farming away for imaginary points but startups are using your metrics as proof of success to VC, then there's a good chance you're just straight up being abused. Do you know what VC likes even MORE than users who exert little outflow on a startup? FREE users. If a startup can generate a ton of activity for ZERO cost AND have a rabid user base, they're going to win big. I really adore big winners, but I want those winners to be good products, not just good incentive farmers.
-
I'm really just encouraging people to take their own farming to the next level by engaging intelligently with projects that they like rather than being mindless zombies jumping through hoops. I don't know why, or if it even makes sense, it's just where I'm at right now.
-
I feel like EVERYONE thinks I'm targeting eigenlayer, and I'm not. I have hesitancy about Eigenlayer because of its impact on the security layer, and I accept it as a natural evolution of our space. I have no intention or desire to target them for their airdrop mechanism, other than to say, farming for points can be risky and create a house of cards in certain cases.
-
Regarding the greed issue (ferraris and yachts), I definitely align with you - I want to carve out a fair share and leave enough pie for others, but that doesn't mean I'm some kind of altruistic monk. I DO enjoy the benefits of wealth and I do hope to continue building wealth, but it's true that I take a more socialistic approach than many others. I feel like if we build Ethereum to be super powerful and valuable, then we will also benefit from that value; but if all of us focus on greed and extraction now, everyone will suffer in the long run. I prefer to think of cryptocurrency as a nascent project that has 1000x growth potential (platform, not price) if we foster healthy growth, or it can have a quick death if everyone extracts without regenerating.
-
Finally, I want to remind everyone that value and wealth are represented by more than money. Money is fun, but money is only useful when it's used in an environment where it can bring you benefit. As a worst case scenario, money was useless in the stone age because it couldn't bring benefit. I have a real belief that if we bring blockchain developments to fruition, then the entire world will have access to more benefit. NFTs are a horrible (but useful) example of this. Prior to blockchains, you could have billions of dollars, but still no access to NFTs. Money could not provide that benefit because blockchains hadn't been developed to the extent that they were possible. There are MANY other developments that will be possible in the future if we continue developing this technology, and when we do, our money will be even more useful than it is today because we'll have access to more value from it through blockchain developments.
u/cryptOwOcurrency explains what would happen if the Nethermind bug happened to Geth
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19bwkm1/daily_general_discussion_january_21_2024/kiyi5lo/)Assumptions:
- You are running a single validator
- A bug causes one client to fork (like we saw today with nethermind)
- Geth is a supermajority client (>66%), nethermind is a minority client (<33%), as is currently the case
- No bailout (just for illustration purposes)
If a Nethermind fork happens (this is what actually happened today):
- Geth stakers continue with no losses
- Nethermind stakers lose an amount of ETH equal to 2x how long it takes for them to get back online (if you're offline for 3 hours, you lose 6 hours of rewards - that's 3 hours of attestation penalties or "negative rewards", plus that same 3 hours of opportunity cost where you weren't earning the usual rewards)
If a Geth fork happens (exactly like what happened today, but just swap geth and nethermind):
- Nethermind stakers continue with no losses
- Geth stakers finalize a bugged fork and get "stuck". The canonical chain stops finalizing. Inactivity leak for geth stakers starts slow at first, then accelerates. Extrapolating from /u/hanniabu's twitter post, you lose 28 ETH of your 32 ETH.
TL;DR: Stake with nethermind, a nethermind bug causes you to lose 0.0005 ETH. Stake with geth, a geth bug causes you to lose 28 ETH.
Disclaimer, this is all to the best of my knowledge and I don't consider myself to be an expert in this.
u/interweaver reminds us how important it is that Ethereum succeeds and how we can protect it as best as possible
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19bwkm1/daily_general_discussion_january_21_2024/kiyfnvq/)Perfection is an illusion.
No software is perfect.
When a system is built on a software monoculture, it will inevitably fail when that critical software inevitably fails.
When a system is built on a diverse polyculture of software, it becomes resilient enough to not fail overall when any particular piece of supporting software fails.
Ethereum is too important to fail. It's too important to the future of money and the internet, too important in the fight against Moloch, and too important to the inhabitants of a world that is becoming more and more centralized as time goes on.
If I were on the side of Moloch, if I were going to attack Ethereum, I would do exactly what a sophisticated attacker might indeed be doing: releasing blocks designed to give minority clients issues, in the hope that people would be scared back onto Geth, in hopes of shutting down the nascent polyculture that its proponents have been desperately trying to cultivate before it's too late.
I would tell people that it's much more important to avoid the possibility of a few hours of downtime once or twice a year than it is to avoid the permanent destruction of the chain's Lindy and legitimacy.
You all know Ethereum is too important to fail. Of those of you running nodes or especially staking, most have done the responsible thing and run minority clients.
Don't let anyone scare you into switching back into the supermajority. Don't let the occasional minor hiccups distract you from the looming impact of the supermajority bug asteroid that we're desperately trying to divert from its path towards planet Ethereum before it's too late.
Embrace the fact that no software is perfect, and that helping run Ethereum will always mean the possibility of unexpected adventures, no matter what software you run. But it's your choice whether those adventures will be a fun afternoon resyncing your execution client in the good company of your fellow client users, or a less fun loss of every single Ether you staked, while the community fractures around you and all of our dreams for a better, more decentralized future lie in tatters around us.
Choose wisely.
u/pa7x1 shares a list of the largest entities staking with Geth and u/interweaver shares a timeline of Coinbase's comments on client diversity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19cou8k/daily_general_discussion_january_22_2024/kj39iro/)Here is a list of some node operators with a lot of ETH staked using Geth. The easiest way to fix the EL client diversity issue is to knock on their doors and let them know why it matters. If you are staking with them, be aware that your stake is at risk if a bug in Geth would cause a mass slashing. You should unstake with them and let them know why you are doing so.
I have added client teams staking with Lido in there because I find it particularly problematic that they do not lead the charge of client diversity with their example. Them more than anyone should be aware of the risks.
| Operator | Total ETH Staked | Estimated Geth usage |
|---|---|---|
| Coinbase | 4400000 | 100% |
| Kraken | 860000 | 100% |
| Binance | 1000000 | 100% |
| Nethermind | 10000 | 68% |
| Prysmatic Labs | 10000 | 100% |
| Consensys | 10000 | 100% |
| Sigma Prime | 10000 | 70% |
| Kiln (Lido) | 10000 | 100% |
| Kiln (non-Lido) | 790000 | 100%? |
| Allnodes | 700000 | 100% |
| Bitcoin Suisse | 550000 | 100% |
| Stakefish | 370000 | 100% |
These guys together represent 1/3 of all ETH staked. If the do something about it the problem is gone.
Sources:
https://dune.com/hildobby/eth2-staking
https://execution-diversity.info/
https://www.stakingrewards.com/provider/allnodes
Just to recap Coinbase's public statements about execution client diversity (to my knowledge):
Viktor Bunin, head of the Protocol Operations team at Coinbase Cloud (Coinbase's staking infrastructure provider), May 31st, 2022:
Thank you and yes, we're looking at supporting other execution clients :)
Will Robinson, VP of Engineering, December 9th, 2023:
We do care.
Thank you for the push. Ethereum's client diversity is one of the most striking manifestations of its commitment to decentralization.
Jesse Pollak, creator of Base and Head of Protocols, December 12th, 2023:
i hear you - lots of internal conversations ongoing. appreciate your patience as we work through it!
Viktor Bunin again, December 12th, 2023:
Thanks! We're looking into it, but nothing to share at this time.
Will Robinson again, January 2nd, 2024:
We're going to do it. Timeline is still TBD. I want to under-promise and over-deliver. :-)
Ben Rodriguez, Senior Protocol Specialist, today:
Hi! I’m a Protocol Specialist here. I have been pushing for this and we are actively pursuing it.
And now Brian Armstrong, CEO, today:
u/hanniabu outlines the aftermath of a hypothetical critical supermajority Geth bug
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19cou8k/daily_general_discussion_january_22_2024/kj2ciz8/)Catostrphic.
- Losses would be ~$50 Billion
- ~690,000 validators would experience a ~32 ETH slash
- That's ~22,000,000 or ~18% of supply getting wiped out
- Many entities will need to close shop
- The social layer would split
- We may see a contentious fork where all the service providers running Geth try to use USDC and infrastructure providers to legitimize that chain
- Trust in Ethereum would be destroyed
u/Ber10 shares the Tornado Cash developer legal fundraiser
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19dhkux/daily_general_discussion_january_23_2024/kj5vsdt/)2 tornado cash devs that got in legal trouble are looking for donations
https://twitter.com/rstormsf/status/1749490246000238942
links to:
and then to:
You can donate Eth and get an NFT.
https://juicebox.money/@free-pertsev-and-storm
Alternatively Go fund me or directly through justicedao.
The precedent set in that legal case might have a significant impact on the future of ethereum.
I dont see any Monero/Zcash donations so far. But maybe that wouldnt be in their best interest anyway.
u/Ender985 writes a post mortem on the recent nethermind incident
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19dhkux/daily_general_discussion_january_23_2024/kj6bxbc/)I wanted to write a small post-mortem on the Nethermind incident, as a small solo staker.
Nethermind started having problems around block 19056922. Block sync became more infrequent than usual, there were some missed attestations, but the node somehow kept up. Finally, 1h and 50 minutes later, Nethermind started reporting "No incoming messages from the consensus client that is required for sync" and Prysm "Execution client is not syncinc", effectively putting the node offline (let's call this T+0).
I became aware of the issue at about T+45min. Tried restarting the services at T+50min, but quickly found out that this did not resolve the issue. After that, I checked if Eth prices had crashed to see if the whole blockchain had been attacked and brought down, but saw no price action. Then I went on discord, and found out that this was a Nethermind-specific issue.
After reading that a full resync might solve the issue, I rebooted Nethermind into a fresh data dir at T+1h20min, to begin the process. I was shocked to find that at T+2h23min the node was already submitting attestations, only 1h and 3 minutes after starting the sync from scratch. The first time I did this a number of months ago, it took more than 10 hours to get to this point. The node was not fully operational yet (I think block proposals would still have failed), but at least I was back attesting the network.
At around this time the Nethermind team announced that a fix was released (at T+1h40min apparently), but it took a while for the ubuntu repo to propagate the last version. My node was already attesting, so I was in no rush to update. About 1h later, I applied the fix, reverted back to the old database, and the node was fully online again.
In total, the attestation downtime made each validator earn 0.0007 eth less that it would have in normal operating conditions. This comes up to $1.57 per validator at today's prices, quite literally pocket change. Of course a missed block would have meant a much larger missed cost, but the chances of getting a block within the downtime window were quite low.
All in all, the issue was identified and fixed by the Nethermind devs incredibly quickly for a Sunday evening, and only caused a few hours of downtime. If anything, the speed of the fix only gave me more confidence on the Nethermind team, now that I've seen them working under fire. True, if I had been running geth I would have avoided this incident, but if I'd been running geth and there was a similar incident with that client I'd probably have lost most of my eth.
u/haurog shares a blog post about their experience with all of the different staking clients
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19ea76a/daily_general_discussion_january_24_2024/kjbkocf/)A few weeks ago a wrote a blog post about my experience with the various execution and consensus clients as a solo staker and the small differences they have. I never shared it here. It grew out of a longer message I wrote on the gnosis chain discord and it was well received there. It is a personal view so I am definitely missing a few angles, but hopefully there is no wrong information in there. If you think something could/should be improved, please let me know. I wrote it shortly before the Besu bug, so nothing about the recent bugs is discussed. I am still debating if I should add a short section about the bugs, but at the moment I leave it like that.
u/accidental_green releases an automated tool that makes switching clients a breeze
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19ea76a/daily_general_discussion_january_24_2024/kjdd7zb/)In pursuit of client diversity, I simplified the open source client-switcher and removed any code that wasn't absolutely necessary.
It's now a basic Python script of 439 lines that does the following:
1) Prompt user for inputs and validate inputs:
- Select Ethereum network (mainnet, goerli, sepolia, holesky)
- Select Execution Client to REMOVE (geth, besu, nethermind, none)
- Select Execution Client to INSTALL (geth, besu, nethermind, none)
2) Remove old client and install new client
3) Create new service files, reload daemon, print final results
That's it! Same process as Somer's guides just simplified and automated. The switch takes 5 minutes with validators attesting again in ~2 hours (nethermind).
There's a CLI (terminal) and GUI version to fit various setups and preferences.
It's all open source, so you can check github or ethstaker to view detailed images and review the code.
I'm working to get it audited asap, but any help in the meantime is appreciated.
Week #52: January 19, 2024
Special guest Mike Silagadze joins us from Ether.Fi, a native liquid restaking protocol.
Announcements
- POAP Checkout now supports mainnet, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base
- Goerli successfully upgraded to Dencun, now L2s can begin blob testing
Upcoming Guests
- Jan. 26 - Kevin Owocki of Green Pill
- Feb. 2 - Lucas of Pods
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/19ac5xh/comment/kijwlnn/)Ethereum
$2461
0.059
89,027 hodlers subscribed
490d SM
799d since ATH (ratiogang)
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/198pjar/comment/ki9t0aw/)Ether beats the odds,
Upscaling the rollup squads,
Welcome to the blobs.
Shitpost of the week: u/Sourdoughpretzel4444
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1971kkf/daily_general_discussion_january_15_2024/khyjhp8/)Today is a banking holiday in the states and because of that I cannot:
-
Deposit/withdraw my monies
-
Receive direct deposits of monies
-
Have any monies cleared/settled in my accounts
-
Buy the stonk :(
THE FUTURE OF FRANCIS
u/accidental_green developed an awesome tool to encourage client diversity. With more indepth Here!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/193ukvu/daily_general_discussion_january_11_2024/khc7q53/)In the spirit of client diversity, I created an open source tool that allows anyone to instantly swap to a minority client with 0 configuration or effort. Just 1 click, new client.
I added a simple GUI, so switching clients can now be done with 0 programming experience in under 30 seconds.
Installation is based on Somer Esat's guides and works with Geth, Besu, and Nethermind on both mainnet and testnets.
Feel free to check out the ethstaker post or see the details on Github:
- Client Switcher: Instantly switch Execution Client
- Validator Install: Fresh Ubuntu to full validator in minutes
- Validator Updater: Update Execution and Consensus client to latest versions
These are personal projects that have not been audited, but the code is open source and fairly easy to understand. Any testing or feedback is always appreciated!
I created an open source validator updater that allows home stakers to update their entire setup in a single click with almost no downtime!
Github repo: https://github.com/accidental-green/validator-updater
Validator Updater Summary:
- Select Execution Client to update: (Besu, Geth, Nethermind)
- Select Consensus Client to update: (Lighthouse, Nimbus, Prysm, Teku)
- Select Update MEV-boost: (Yes or No)
- Click "Update" to close the window and return to the terminal
Once complete, restart the services and ensure the validator is still attesting.
The updated binaries are installed at /usr/local/bin to be compatible with Somer Esat's guides, but can be adapted to work with non-standard installations.
Feel free to review my other validator related repos below:
Validator Install: Fresh Ubuntu to syncing validator in 1 minute
Validator Controller: Validator GUI for easy operation (start, stop, journals, etc)
Client Switcher: Instantly switch between Execution Clients
The code has not been audited, so use with caution. These are all open source community resources, so testing and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Cheers and Happy Staking!
u/Syentist makes a case for raising the gas limit while u/thewalkinglive and u/16withScars share developer sentiment that we should be more cautious
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/193ukvu/daily_general_discussion_january_11_2024/khcoevx/)Going to bring this up again: I strongly think we need to increase the gas limit, and Dencun is probably the best time to co-ordinate around this (although a HF is not needed for validators to increase the gas limit).
A few things to point out again:
- The last gas limit increase was early 2021, almost 3 years ago. Cost of SSDs have substantially reduced since then
- Most L1 native apps (Maker vaults, ENS, LSTs) have not completed migration to L2s. Partly because we still don't have a Stage 2 L2 anyways. Which means users are still forced to use the L1, and pay high fees for basic and essential functions like taking a DAI loan or staking ETH for stETH.
- We are clearly on the cusp of mainstream attention, especially as an ETH ETFapproval nears in May. Which means we are going to run into exceptionally high gas fees under current settings, and a constant narrative that the "Ethereum chain is unusable". An entire cohort of new users (probably the largest wave of new on-boarded users to date) will see the ridiculous fees on L1 (and by extension, L2s), see the sub-cent fees on Solana, and simply gravitate to the cheaper narrative. We will unnecessarily lose out on the narrative war, and the Nov-Dec period of scorn to the ethereum community is, I fear, just a prelude.
- Most importantly: Vitalik has soft-signalled this twice in the past week. First, in the tweet thread on the roadmap update (when he pointed out gas limit increase doesn't need a HF and can be done anytime), and secondly and more explicitly, in yesterday's EF AMA. Now, the problems with increasing the gas limit: State growth, client stability, cost of minimal equipment - *of-fucking-course these variables are playing out in Vitalik's head*, he has written more on this than pretty much anyone alive. Of course he is aware of it, no? But pragmatic choices need to be made, and that is what I see here in his comments.
- Finally, I think it is time the ethereum community and core protocol development process "formalised" a framework for minimum validator specs per fixed cost of fiat. It can't be based on just vibes. It can't be that we want to - eventually - run a full validator on the computing power of a microwave (running lightclients is a differnet story). We need a reasonable threshold - something like a full validator should not cos more than $800 to assemble. And every 12 months or so, we review the hardware prices, and if it costs cheaper than $800 (or X threshold) to run a validator, we raise the gas limit (or number of blobs or whatever else).
What problem does increasing the gas limit solve?
Increasing it definitely has a downside. State will grow faster, sync time will get slower quicker, DoS potential will grow. Would be nice to have a number on those.
That said, what does increasing the gas limit net us?
I feel we're kind of yoloing this. Do we have the monitoring and metrics in place to see how things evolve? If not, IMO we should fist have tooling that can point to the effect of a change before making that change. Otherwise it's gonna get summed to "look, not dead yet".
If we had a solid monitoring, we could just bump by 1M, see what happens. Nothing gets wonky, ok, bump by another 1M.
Going 10M in one go hoping nothing will get borked in the next 5 years is a bit too optimistic to my taste. Even though it might as well be the case
- Geth Team Lead - Péter Szilágyi
https://twitter.com/peter_szilagyi/status/1745374731824439531
What are your thoughts on this? It does make sense and I understand why he is annoyed. He is the one who has to deal with the impact of the increase in state size.
On increasing the gas limit, I agree with Francesco and Dankrad (researchers at EF).
My take is similar:
Bumping the gas limit just as EIP-4844 is about to be shipped which already increases storage and network bandwidth costs is a bad idea
this isn't the right time at all
given the better hardware argument, we should definitely be increasing the size of blobspace (not blockspace). But only after the Deneb HF.
u/benido2030 thinks we should organize around a community $STRK delegate. And then updates the search for an EthFinance/EVMavericks $STRK delegate
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/194nvno/daily_general_discussion_january_12_2024/khhnuxp/)The result from the OP RPGF round 3 is a big motivation for me because it shows me that if we coordinate as a community, we can really get things done and improve the ecosystem.
I believe $STRK is around the corner. The snapshot for the airdrop is in according to an official tweet beginning of December 2023. The last upgrade allows tx to be paid in $STRK (but you obviously still use ETH as well). And afaik $STRK that lived on L1 for a long time now also is briged/ deployed on starknet.
I am also rather sure that $STRK will be a governance token because it is a governance token now and there are delegates participating in governance already, see this vote/ example.
So here are some questions:
(1) Who has used Starknet a lot and knows the ecosystem? (whatever that means, hard to answer tbh)
(2) Who has the time, energy and willingness to act as a delegate for starknet?
I think it would be great if we could informally agree on 1, 2, 3, x delegates that could represent this community in the starknet ecosystem and governance. That obviously doesn't mean that you can't delegate your $STRK to someone else outside of this community! But if we agree on candidates beforehand, those potential delegates can setup everything when the token drops.
So a quick update on the $STRK delegate search I started on Friday:
We have a first candidate: u/Tricky_Troll is interested and I would probably borrow $STRK to delegate even more to him! (I won't, but I think Tricky is a great first candidate!)
But let's not stop here, I think we should have 2 or maybe even 3 candidates. First of all it would be great if we as a community had a choice from ETH Finance (and let me get that straight: not because I think Tricky is not a great candidate, as I said I would delegate to Tricky without thinking twice!). More importantly though, I think we will likely - as a community - have a lot of $STRK power that we probably should spread across at least 2 delegates. So I would be really happy to see more people coming forward!
Also u/bob-rossi said that he would be happy to share his experience with people thinking about being a delegate. So if you wanna understand what it is like before you make a decision, feel free to contact him. Maybe a channel in the EVM discord like he suggested also makes sense and maybe other delegates would have a look as well, to share their thoughts. In a best case scenario "our" delegates not only receive voting power from Eth Finance, but maybe the more experienced delegates can tell us how they convinced people to delegate to them!
So: I would be very excited if some people thought about being a delegate and of course best case share their interest here so we can coordinate.
Let's go!
u/Bob-Rossi will be running for an Arbitrum Grants council spot
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/194nvno/daily_general_discussion_january_12_2024/khijzq9/)Discussions on the next version of the Arbitrum grants program have been underway and I wanted to share this for two reasons.
-
It is currently in the Snapshot voting stage. So, if anyone here is involved with projects that are interested in that type of thing it might be a good idea to start coordinating what an application would look like. I don't believe they have any official application template just yet, but I'd imagine it will be pretty similar to the STIP rounds. This new round already has some changes that should hopefully make it less chaotic then the first STIP grants.
-
One of the changes is creating a 5-member council that gives a first pass at all applicants. The goal here is to cut down on some of applicant volume so when delegates vote they can be less overwhelmed and have the ability to review the proposals a little more thoroughly. And then they are adding 3 "Applicant Advisor" roles as well. That group can help assist projects with polishing their application for a best chance of success. I wanted to mention that specifically for any projects that may apply, that the assistance is there. Both are an elected and paid position.
Relating to point two... part of my post is to let everyone here know I will be running for one of the council spots. I'm not sure how successful I will be honestly, but I wanted to at least make people here aware since I'm sure many of my delegates come from here. I actually applied a week+ ago, but wanted to wait until voting was closer to 'announce'.
I'm trying really hard to toe the line between being the overbearing "hey vote for me" guy while still being effective at least getting the word out. So I'll leave it simply at this - if there are any questions you have for me relating to my application, or even just any thoughts on what a successful council would look like if I got elected, please let me know. And of course, if you do decide to support me always know I will be grateful!
I really, really wish I could link the post... but probably easiest to find more info about the grant program would be going to the Snapshot Vote and clicking the corresponding link to the main Arbitrum governance forum. Then if you are interested in who is running for council, the 17th post in that thread will have a link directly to the "LTI Pilot Program Position Application Thread". Which alternatively can be found by going to the main forum page, clicking under the blue "Dao Grants Program" subsection, and finding that thread near the top. Sorry for the runaround, but Reddit does really make it this much of a pain...
u/Ethical-trade discusses the future of France Finance
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1971kkf/daily_general_discussion_january_15_2024/khyb3rv/)By now I'm sure we've all seen Larry Fink, CEO of the world's largest asset manager Blackrock (with $9 trillion in assets, 3 times France's entire GDP), saying that the future of france is tokenization of assets "on one single ledger" (source). More specifically, he talked about bonds and stocks.
But what could this "one single ledger" be?
In this other interview, Fink again mentions stepping stones towards tokenization right after speaking about an ether ETF.
Since that I've read a few Ethereum detractors saying that there's no way tokenization of stocks and bonds will happen on mainnet Ethereum, because issuers will need an environment they can control. And this is probably sort of right.
But what they'll also need is an environment that fully communicates with the leading tokenization platform.
Ethereum currently holds 55% of all of defi's TVL, here's your leading platform. That's the "one single ledger" Fink talks about. And that's without counting rollups and sidechains. And before a 10x scaling of rollups in a couple of months.
But interoperability and control, how to you reconciliate these two?
In the past banks have created their own permissioned Ethereum clones (Hyperledger, Quorum, ... more about these here). They looked like intranet, closed and safe versions of the internet. But have you heard of projects that crossed the chasm and made it to mainnet? I haven't. Just like intranet, these projects were fun playground but didn't take advantage of the full potential of Ethereum. What good is a website others can't reach?
Today, the scaling solution(s) chosen by the Ethereum community happen to be absolutely perfect for reconciliating interoperability with control. A rollup, a volition, a validium or any other hybrid solution is just what's needed to solve this problem.
You can be part of the ecosystem, but still retain some degree of control.
Not only that but the cost will soon basically be net zero: we can safely expect that launching your own L2 on Ethereum will be as trivial as launching a smart contract: copy some open source code and let stakers manage security for you through Eigenlayer. How much did Hyperledger and Quorum cost to create and operate? I couldn't find figures but a shitload I'm sure. How much will launching a rollup cost in 2 years? 1,000 or 10,000 less?
I don't like Fink and probably never will. But it truly amazes me how far we've come.
Today, the CEO of the world's largest asset managers sees the future we've seen for years, a future of finance with Ethereum at its core.
u/Defacticool thinks that many are missing the looming product market fit for Ethereum and u/JebediahKholin expands on that
[View on Reddit →]()I wanted to repost the article u/vvpan provided the other day about the progress and interest in tokenising securities by institutional firms.
In this case Brewan Howard.
I wanted to repost it because I really dont think it got the recognition it deserved. You know those "steps" Larry Fink talked about which eventually culminate in full tokenisation of everything. This is the next big step
And as I said I believe this usecase alone, if eventually succesful at scale (such that it picks up a network effect) could swell Ethereum to unfathomable degrees. I truly think this is being slept on by us crypto natives.
This is the "crypto taking over tradfi" moment. This is the "Ethereum is the new internet" moment. If it succeeds.
"Product market fit"? This is it.
I've provded an archive link to bypass the paywall and I'll paste the artivle text too.
https://archive.ph/v4BVk#selection-4891.0-4891.13
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/crypto/brevan-howard-joins-in-on-institutional-push-to-tokenize-funds
Brevan Howard plans to tokenize at least one of its funds through a partnership with a startup backed by Nomura’s Laser Digital, making it the latest financial heavyweight to experiment with putting money on blockchains.
Libre Capital, the startup which includes Laser Digital and the Alan Howard-backed incubator WebN Group as investors, said it will offer zero fees to asset managers who tokenize funds on its namesake platform. Brevan Howard, along with Hamilton Lane, said they’ll be the first asset managers to do so. Libre’s public blockchain technology is supported by Ethereum scaling firm Polygon.
“The tokenisation of funds allows us to offer investors a new way to access our strategies, providing them with optionality, and further develops our platform to serve client needs,” said Natalie Smith, head of strategy and client partnerships group at Brevan Howard, in a release.
Brevan Howard is one of the earliest Wall Street participants in the digital-asset sector. Its digital-currency fund rose 44% last year. Even so, this will still be the Jersey, Channel Islands-based investment firm’s first tokenized fund. The process has been promoted heavily recently as one of the few viable use cases for blockchains. Citigroup estimated the tokenization market could swell to $5 trillion by 2030.
“Ultimately, our goal isn’t to make money on the distribution side,” said Avtar Sehra, CEO and founder of Libre, in an interview. “For us, we want to take the money and the operational costs as close to zero as possible.”
Libre also plans to launch collateralized lending and automated rebalancing of separately managed accounts later in 2024, according to Sehra.
With Libre taking zero fees from fund distributors for tokenization, Sehra anticipated that the company will profit mostly from the lending and SMAs businesses.
I often find myself thinking that eth is a natural solution to a lot of global financial problems. The latest is the fink tokenized asset commentary.
Another was the issue of central banks not having a fast trustless way to trade currencies. To an eth enthusiast, this is an obvious fit - issue currencies as erc20s, and let the trading simply occur in a trustless format.
The imf didn’t even consider this, but instead addressed all kinds of cbdc variants. The obvious problem is that they’re all trusted, and countries simply don’t trust each other enough to use one another’s private chains. The imf briefly addressed bitcoin as a possibility before dismissing it.
I wonder if a lot of this reflexive hostility to eth and permissionless programmable chains is a response to bitcoin and its dominant narrative. Bitcoiners talk about fiat being worthless and central banks as enemies - of course central banks are going to view this with hostility. They view an attack on their fiat as an attack on their sovereignty. The digital gold/SoV approach makes much more sense for how bitcoin is set up, but also is less of a direct challenge.
Anyway, all this to say that closed eth clones are always going to have the problem of being trusted, and if you’re not part of the consortium running the chain, you’re ultimately at their mercy. Now matter how big that consortium is, there will always be some outside it, thereby limiting its network effects.
u/bagogel12 shares the latest exploit and in light of this, u/PhiMarHal shares some pointers on best practice security
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/197vodp/daily_general_discussion_january_16_2024/ki62c9c/)Security alert!
Bungee / socket being exploited.
Revoke contract 0x3a23f943181408eac424116af7b7790c94cb97a5
source Spreek
https://twitter.com/spreekaway/status/1747337879771033632
Edit: Only mainnet exploited, other chains could be exploitable. Same contract on other chains, 0xaDdE7028e7ec226777e5dea5D53F6457C21ec7D6 on zksync era.
Edit2: Afaik if you used bungee you should be fine, as their webapp does only approve the amount you like to send.
Edit3: https://twitter.com/SocketDotTech/status/1747349422730813525 Socket confirmed and paused the contract.
Edit4: Hopefully last edit. Revoke cash has created a tool to easily check. Although contracts are paused, it's recommended to revoke if your address is affected. It could also happen that you bridged with services like zerion or rainbow. [https://revoke.cash/exploits/socket?chainId=1
Fast reaction from Bungee.
This sent me on a revoke binge regardless. It's easy to get sloppy for the sake of convenience. The other day I mentioned using Odos rather than other aggregators so I limit my approvals. Of course, this requires actually revoking previous approvals!
I like the idea of a 2 addresses setup, to limit risk. Address A holds all funds. Only ever sends and receives tokens to address B. Address B is the trader. Approves everything, does the swaps, gets into the tokenized positions, transfers everything back to A once each series of operations is done. This protects against many hacks since A holds everything and approves nothing.
However... It's hard to have the discipline to stick to this. It would be fantastic if there was wallet software to automate this behavior. You "start a session" and this triggers A sending whatever to B, then you operate B as a normal wallet, then as you "close your session" this triggers a transaction of B sending whatever newly acquired funds back to A. Even restricting any action from A that's not send to B (unless you enter a password to override, or whatever).
Probably hard to build but man I would love this.
u/interweaver discovered and reported a bug in their execution client!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/198pjar/daily_general_discussion_january_17_2024/kidbw3k/)Guess what, I had a u/seamonkey82 moment today, and helped find a client bug! Story time :D
Some of you may be aware that there's an ongoing debate about whether Ethereum can handle a slight increase in its block gas limit. This would make L1 gas slightly cheaper by creating more blockspace, at the expense of being harder to keep in sync with the chain for the weakest machines on the network.
The gas limit is currently at 30M units of gas per block (which means 15M units is equilibrium). Some folks are proposing raising it 33%-50%, to e.g. 40M-45M, while others oppose any raises, especially in light of the upcoming EIP-4844, which will raise requirements a bit too.
The fun thing is, individual stakers actually are able to change this number themselves whenever they propose blocks. Unlike many other changes, you don't need a hardfork to accomplish it. Rather, individual stakers can pick their own "target gas limit", which their client will attempt to move the gas limit towards. The protocol allows the block gas limit to change by 1/1024th of the previous block's value, per block. In this way, if the majority of the stake decides on a new number, the value will start random walking its way to that new value, and stick there more firmly the greater the consensus. This mechanism is a holdover from the days of mining, but it's pretty neat.
Anyway, as a solo staker, I decided to YOLO raise my own limit last month, and set it up to 40M. This involves setting some flags in your execution and consensus clients. I run Besu/Lodestar, and set their flags appropriately.
Since then, I proposed (at least) one MEV-boost block. As expected, that block's gas limit was 30M + 30M / 1024, i.e. 30029295 units. A slightly less than 0.1% increase over the standard amount. It isn't much, but it helped make Ethereum L1 slightly cheaper for that block and (indirectly) the next few! Cool, everything's working!
Since then, I proposed (at least) one locally-built block (I have a min-bid set, like most responsible solo stakers who care about avoiding too much censorship, and it triggered.) As a reminder, locally built blocks are constructed by your execution client, in my case Besu, from the contents of their public mempools.
My locally built block(s), upon examination, looked great, except for one thing! Rather than 30029295 units of gas as expected, and rather than the 30M units of gas I would expect to see if I had misconfigured something, my locally built block(s) had a gas limit of 30001024. WTF? It's supposed to change by 1/1024 of the parent block, not by 1024!
Some in-depth adventures into the Besu Github later, I confirmed that indeed, there was a bug that was causing all Besu locally built blocks to only be able to shift up or downwards by a maximum of 1024 units of gas, rather than the (at present) 29295 units of gas expected. Put another way, Besu stakers with locally built blocks would only be able to move the gas limit about 3% as fast as locally-building stakers running other execution clients.
Jumping into the Besu Discord, I reported this situation, and worked through it with Matt Nelson, one of the excellent Besu team members who can be found there. He confirmed the bug and figured out the needed fix, and that should be making it into a future Besu version.
So anyway, moral of the story is, just YOLO changing numbers is apparently a great way to find client bugs, with your face :P Hopefully as the gas limit discussion continues, this means Besu stakers will be fully equipped if there is more of a mass movement in the direction of increasing that limit!
u/LogrisTheBard, u/pr0nh0li0, and u/Set1Less comment on the SEC vs Coinbase lawsuit
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/198pjar/daily_general_discussion_january_17_2024/kibyrvn/)I am glued to this Coinbase case today. You couldn't have asked for a friendlier judge. The judge was practically feeding arguments to Coinbase. Gensler should be screaming at the screen if he's watching this.
The only argument Coinbase made that bounced seemed to be the major questions doctrine where the judge is hesitant to remove the authority of anyone but Congress to regulate anything about this space.
However, the SEC has completely failed to define why a baseball card or fantasy football team wouldn't be a security but tokens would. The SEC wants any anon trade on Coinbase to be a security contract if someone promoted it on Twitter. Coinbase wants a security contract to include at minimum some type of contract or legal right. Unless the token includes inherent rights like on-chain governance and a claim to dividends it's hard to argue you are entering a contract when purchasing a token.
Promising start to the SEC/Coinbase Trial:
Judge Failla is on fire right out of the gate.
She says to the @SECGov lead lawyer, and I paraphrase: The “DeFi people” gave a “really fine” amicus brief explaining what staking is and what the wallet is used for, “arguably better” than how the Commission explained it in its briefing.”
She also says the @SECGov hasn’t presented an opposing narrative for the legal foundations of Howey in its briefing.
<3 all you "defi people"
Looks like the SEC is not done losing, they are looking to take another big L in the Coinbase / Staking case
https://x.com/eleanorterrett/status/1747641703626924431
Bruh....
Failla then addresses the Howey Test: “We’ve had a god run. We’ve had 90 years where these securities laws have been able to apply to these markets. But now we have something new.”
Holy smokes, hope the judge rules this way. This is the equivalent of complaining about someone encroaching on your parking spot only to end up losing your home in court
https://x.com/RSSH273/status/1747647514302689553
Favorite moment of argument so far:
SEC — “the tokens themselves are not a security”
Failla — “that’s what the folks in the back table think (Coinbase). And they are wondering why we are here”
Week #51: January 12, 2024
Announcements
Upcoming Guests
- January 26 - Kevin Owocki of Green Pill
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/194nvno/comment/khhc627/)Ethereum
88,973 hodlers subscribed (+17)
$2620.17
0.0567
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/193ukvu/comment/khe6hf4/)Suspens removal,
A court ordered approval,
Not fiducial.
Shitpost of the week: u/Itur_ad_Astra
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1927osy/daily_general_discussion_january_9_2024/kh4g8z4/)OMG! 😭Cant believe ETF is approved ! Thank you SEC team ! ❤️ keep doing the great work. 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻🚀🚀🚀
u/pr0nh0li0 warns of the scammy state of crypto twitter right now
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18y5x53/daily_general_discussion_january_4_2024/kgbku24/)Current Twitter experience as a long time crypto user. Seeing this same scam ad for a fake ZKsync airdrop every ~5 tweets, and some other scam ad every other 10 tweets.
Just got this now, my heart's full of joy, what an amazing day 🌟
lol; At least a/b test the copy scammer guy I really can't imagine this headline works that well
(I still love crypto Twitter despite how god awful the spam has gotten on the platform)
u/LogrisTheBard covers how Eigen layer is affecting the peg of LSTs 🧠
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18y5x53/daily_general_discussion_january_4_2024/kgctkg6/)So many people hyped into the swETH EigenLayer contract that it has seriously affected the swETH peg. Prior to the EigenLayer deposit opening people were chain minting swETH for Pearls then selling it to ETH at almost a 3% loss. That is to say the market was speculating that the pearl to ETH ratio would be about .0015. As recently as Dec 10th swETH was at about 1.01 swETH/ETH. Right now it's sitting at almost 1.05 (the native rate is 1.0471). So just holding swETH in the past 4 weeks has made you 4% almost on your ETH (more than an entire year of solo staking). It has also largely drained the swETH liquidity as apparently LPs exited their position to pure swETH and deposited the whole stack into EigenLayer. You can see volume hugely spiked, right around the time TVL halved.
Larger LSTs are less dramatically affected but there's the same phenomenon are still visible in them. In many cases the lower liquidity has significantly improved the liquidity farming rates. Some of these new combination pools like cbETH/wstETH/rETH are yielding over 12% APR (like 5x solo staking). Even most of the older pools are still at or above 7.5% after accounting for the native appreciation of the LST in their yield.
u/hanniabu explains the risks of EigenLayer
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18y5x53/daily_general_discussion_january_4_2024/kgb7pvg/)- Eigen Layer smart contract risk: Initially slashing will be manually vetted (not sure about penalties), but eventually this will be an automated process. There's the potential to get penalized/slashed accidentally.
- Eigen Layer AVS (services) smart contract risk: - There's the potential to get penalized/slashed accidentally.
- Token risk: Some services may require you to hold their token as collateral in replace of or in addition to ETH.
- Consensus risk:
- You're assigning your withdrawal address to Eigen Layer. As their marketshare increases it's not great to have them in that position of power, especially when slashing is a manual process where there's coercion potential.
- It alters the incentive mechanisms of the chain by introducing large scale second order incentives. Things that a logical actor wouldn't consider before may now be an option.
- It encourages risk at the consensus layer, which isn't good. Especially since home stakers that are more risk averse may not want to participate since native APR gets pushed down and the only way to have sufficient APR is to engage in that risk.
- Influence: If Eigen Layer gets larger, they can have outweighed influence on the ecosystem similar to Lido. That influence allows unchecked growth and behavior because people don't want to be on your bad side. You can also afford pay your way to the outcomes you want.
- Unknown risk: Just like with MEV and builders, there can be a rabbit hole of issues we're not aware of yet.
Note: While Eigen Layer was specifically mentioned, I believe these are inherent risks to all restaking
u/stablecoin updates us on privacy tools
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18yznna/daily_general_discussion_january_5_2024/kgi0exy/)suggest everyone interested in privacy preserving technology read this update (from early December) around Railgun V3. Railgun is a privacy layer you can deposit to and withdrawal to any address, and now they are going to help incorporate defi onto the privacy layer so all your swaps and farming can be shielded.
Also Nocturne just launched a working product last month (which is I think maybe what spurned this update article, friendly competition), and it's nice to see privacy projects still building even if the USG is trying to chill everyone away from the space. Vitalik is a known backer of Nocturne as well.
[EDIT Nocturne Announcement Article]
https://dailyhodl.com/2023/11/15/nocturne-launches-on-mainnet-to-bring-private-accounts-to-ethereum/
lastly don't forget that Aztec network is supposed to launch sometime this year. we may have lost Tornado access in the US temporarily, but it didn't shut it down (not even close) and more and more of these privacy solutions will emerge making it even more and more difficult to deter. at the end of the day blockchain doesn't work without proper privacy being an option. I urge everyone to learn about and explore these tools.
u/sm3gh34d covers the Besu block bug
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18zt205/daily_general_discussion_january_6_2024/kgo0kfi/)This wasn't how I intended to spend my Saturday, but it looks like the sub already is aware of the mainnet block that halted besu this morning: https://etherscan.io/txsInternal?block=18947893
What you might not know yet is there is a hotfix release out that prevents this from occurring in the future for similarly crafted blocks. If you are running besu on mainnet, even if you have already addressed the problem and are caught back up to head, you should upgrade to this hotfix release:
https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/releases/tag/23.10.3-hotfix
u/masterRoshi9 discusses one of the original reasons we're drawn to crypto
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18zt205/daily_general_discussion_january_6_2024/kglzhbv/)Please excuse this minor pause in bullishness and meme sentiment while I vent a bit and reflect on larger problems.
I often think about how inefficient, backwards, corrupt, and self serving politicians of the world governments are; particularly my own. Without getting specific and political, there are so many obvious problems that politicians refuse to address, or can’t, due to clearly perverse incentives that drive them and make them worse over time. It’s one of the things that’s drawn me most to crypto. The guys at Bankless and others in crypto have stated many times that crypto is speed running the lessons learned from traditional finance. More importantly I think it’s speed running lessons around incentive alignment. When everything is financial, the incentive problems and consequences of system design become much more explicit and quantifiable than they are implied like many of the problems in meat space. Governance issues have been rampant in crypto, don’t get me wrong, but experimentation on a smaller scale creates lessons learned and informative feedback that could ideally be applied to broader government systems.
Unfortunately I often times think that we’re too far gone, or late in this game of informed discovery to be able to actionable apply these learnings to larger legacy systems. I’m not even sure we’ve discovered ways to solve a lot of the problems in crypto let alone the broader physical world. Internally crypto can feel fast moving and iterative at a blazing pace, but it also feels slow to me in aspects like these. I feel that if crypto came about 50 years earlier, we might have had a better shot at rethinking the way we govern as a society; that we’d have been able to take more preventative measures or seen problems coming much earlier as a result.
If there is a hope here, I’m confident it will come from younger generations and the lessons they learn from this industry. Everything is driven by incentives, and game theory should be considered everywhere when governing. Here’s hoping the US and other governments nurture innovation in this space going forward. Despite the scams and problems we have here, it is still the breeding ground for the ideas and minds that have the chance to turn things around. It is for this reason, among many others, that choosing pro-crypto candidates is a much higher stakes battle than I think many people realize, even in our industry. It is one of the most important aspects of candidates I will consider voting for moving forward. Long live crypto. Long live Ethereum. Long live innovation. Long live experimentation.
u/timmerwb shares some thoughts on staking after the Besu incident
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/190lbbx/daily_general_discussion_january_7_2024/kgqcffb/)A few further thoughts and opinions on the Besu failure yesterday. I think there is nuance in this situation that got overlooked. But before I begin, let's get some facts straight - and these are well known and not up for debate:
1) No client should have a super majority.
2) The current, and wholly inappropriate situation with Geth is based on i) it's code maturity and empirical reliability; ii) a completely unacceptable level of laziness, wrecklessness and short-term greed by large staking entities. (Which is sadly ironic because at least one of those is tied very closely to the overarching security mechanism of PoS - another example of how we cannot simply "code in" all required incentives.)
However, for some stakers, namely solo-stakers (and possibly other smaller, more responsible staking entites), the situation is much less clear. I think it's fair to say that Geth is indeed a much(?) supererior client to the competition. Should, therefore, a solo-staker take on a more philanthropic role by worrying more about network health by say, running Besu - a less mature client - than their own immediate needs? In terms of measurable risk for them (as far as we can calculate) running Besu would seem to be a disadvantage. E.g. the probability of an event like yesterday for Besu (or NM?) is clearly higher, and their ability to recover from it expediently compared to a larger provider, probably much lower (hence larger losses in time, stress and income). Moreover, as stated at the outset, the systemic risk from the Geth super majority is not driven by solo stakers, and so solo stakers are not meaningfully mitigating that risk by avoiding Geth. (This is like the problem with global warming - we should all try our best, but in reality at this stage, due to the tragedy of the commons, the biggest, and possibly only meaingful improvements can be made by societal policy shift in law).
So, solo-stakers in particular have a question to answer. Should they willingly chose a client that is measureably poorer and riskier for them, basically in support of the "greater good"? Or do they stick with Geth, which is likely to be more reliable for them, and basically push the job of reducing the Geth majority onto the larger stakers (who are clearly much more culpable)? Ultimately, this is something of a subjective choice that boils down to estimates of risk, reliability and person attitude. Yes, Geth could fail in a catastrophic way, but Besu did fail in a catastrophic way. The (empirical) probabilities speak for themselves. Sadly, there is even a worse outcome here, in that (the short sighted) large stakers will now be extremely glad they were running Geth, and not Besu, because imagine having thouands of validators going down on a weekend, with no clear fix for ~24 hours. That would have been extremely costly. Bullet dodged.
In summary, if all clients were demonstrably equally reliabile, the choice of client and question of majority would be more straightforward. But they are not equal at the present time and pragmatism will prevail.
In light of the Besu bug, u/Spacesider found a bug in Lighthouse too!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/191e4wm/daily_general_discussion_january_8_2024/kgvtle2/)Due to the recent Besu issue, I found a bug in the Lighthouse VC.
If you are interested, the full details can be found here > sigp/lighthouse#5044
u/cryptOwOcurrency share some wallet security tips
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/193195q/daily_general_discussion_january_10_2024/kha9kp1/)As we enter the early stages of the next bull market, please remember to keep your crypto wallet secure. While I can't get into the specific schemes I use to keep mine secure, here are some general guidelines I follow that have worked for me since I created my first crypto wallet in the early 2010s.
-
Always prefer open-source over closed-source. Never trust closed-source software with your main stack. Only use the most popular, well-vetted open source software.
-
Strike a balance between safety and recoverability (make your keys safe enough that they don't get stolen, but not so "safe" they you lose the only copy of them).
-
Have no single point of failure, wherever possible. Split your assets across addresses. Split your key across physical locations. But it's gotta be more sophisticated than just putting 12 words in one place and 12 words in another, because afaik 12 words can be bruteforced. Wish I could be more specific about this. Some wallets support Shamir, which can be a good way to do this. Gnosis Safe is less flexible but perhaps the only smart contract out there to be trusted with someone's main stack.
-
Do not use the same PC user account for crypto that you use for your daily tasks. Ideally, have a crypto-only "online" computer that runs something other than Windows. Maintain a minimal software footprint on it. Log into it periodically to keep the OS up to date.
-
Also keep a crypto-only "offline" computing device that never touches the internet. If it's a PC, it needs to be running a very mainstream very publicly-audited version of Linux like ubuntu, fedora, debian, etc. A hardware wallet counts as long as the design is open and the firmware is open-source, but it has some trade-offs you'll have to weigh for yourself.
-
Do everything (concerning your main stack) in multiple batches. Everything. Even the most simple transfers from one address to another that seem like they would be impossible to fuck up, because trust me it's possible to fuck up - if not by your own accord, then by some tricky dicky scheme whereby a hacker replaces addresses in your computer's memory or uses some other silly scheme to bamboozle you. It'll be more expensive to batch things as far as transaction fees, but it's not possible for a single huge fuckup to ruin you. Nobody is perfect, but managing crypto demands perfection. If you send your entire stack off to some rando etherscan spoofer or directly to the token contract itself, there's no getting it back.
-
When you're confirming an address, check it from two different devices running different OSes. One device can be compromised; two heterogeneous devices are unlikely to be compromised by the same hacker at the same time.
-
If your wallet looks a little different than it usually does, panic. You'll need to learn breathing exercises to panic properly without harming yourself too much. But the 1% chance you catch something malicious is worth the 99% of the time where a wallet software update changed things around a bit.
-
If your seed phrase has ever been typed into any device that physically has a wifi chip in it, your keys are compromised. Generate a new seed and transfer things.
-
Corollary: If you did something "clever" like write your seed phrase into a poem, it's still compromised. We're in the AI age now, so you have to protect your seed not only from malicious actors but from their smart AI bot armies who you have to assume will be combing through that poetry you wrote in 10th grade that's in that dropbox account you forgot about, trying random combinations of words in hopes that it derives an active private key.
-
If you have ever said your seed phrase out loud in earshot of a device that has a microphone and a wifi chip (cell phone, non-airgapped pc, smart tv...), your keys are compromised. Generate a new seed and transfer things.
-
If your seed phrase has ever been in view of any camera on any device, your keys are compromised. Generate a new seed and transfer things.
-
If your seed phrase ever looks at you a little cockeyed like he wants treats, but you already gave him his treats today, he's compromised and sadly you need to put him down.
-
If you do not know the specific method by which entropy was collected to generate your keys, your keys are compromised. The gold standard is to use physical dice to generate your seed phrase, and make sure you roll 'em around in your hands a lot. Bitcoin OGs remember Diceware.
-
If your ETH is wrapped in some way or another, you don't own ETH, you own an IOU for ETH. You are owed by a company and/or a contract. Companies go bankrupt, contracts get hacked. If you must hold IOUs, spread them out, but beware correlation risks that may be hiding themselves (ftx/celsius/blockfi/voyager/genesis/3ac is a great example of a hidden correlation risk).
-
You need to learn the basics of cryptography. Creating and managing keys without knowing cryptography basics is like trying to drive a car without knowing the rules of the road.
-
You need to learn the basics of computer security. Learn what makes hacking attempts successful. Learn what CTF is, and learn about the ways hackers and social engineers typically gain access to systems. Imagine you are a hacker with full pwned access to your own main daily driver computer, and imagine how you would try to steal your crypto.
-
Keep yourself up all night worrying about your wallet security. If you wanted to have a peaceful low-stress life, you should have gotten a government 9-5 instead of getting into crypto. If you really need some sleep, buy some melatonin and a weighted blanket. Don't fuck with Ambien - the government puts chips in the pills that program you to go get your seed phrase in the middle of the night and text it to the cia.
-
Don't fuck with Ledger.
-
Don't fuck with Binance.
-
If you are a regulatory agency, use 2-factor auth on your fucking twitter account.
My general paranoia has saved me several times since I started investing in crypto in the early 2010s. Remember, they ARE trying to get your keys. Always. You need to be perfect every time to win, they only need you to fuck up a single time to win, so the game is tilted in their favor. They will never stop, so you have to never stop defending.
u/skythe4 breaks the biggest news of the year only to moments later, bring the news which makes real life seem like a parody of itself
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/1927osy/daily_general_discussion_january_9_2024/kh3yvyk/)Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges.
The approved Bitcoin ETFs will be subject to ongoing surveillance and compliance measures to ensure continued investor protection.
https://twitter.com/SECGov/status/1744829327294837236
The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.
https://twitter.com/GaryGensler/status/1744833049064288387
You can't make this stuff up.
In a short and sweet doot, u/coxenbawls explains both the big news and what the market seemed to make of it
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/193195q/daily_general_discussion_january_10_2024/kh9nqb3/)Spot BTC ETF approved. This is good for ETH.
u/KuDeTa expresses his gratitude for the Optimism rPGF Grant and support Aestus received
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/193ukvu/comment/khejatj/)As you may/not know, [u/austonst](https://reddit.com/u/austonst] and I run the Aestus relay. To be frank, it's been a hard hard slog in terms of funding and we've paid for the whole thing ourselves out of pocket this last year +. Well. A few months ago u/benido2030 raised this in here and practically pushed me into working through the OP rPGF round 3 process. I had assumed it wasn't worth it. Today we found out that we've just been granted ~100k OP tokens (🤯). That is an ungodly amount of money for our little project. I don't even know how to begin to say thank you, but none the less thank you, thank you and thank you to him, u/superphiz and everyone else that voted and pushed this through. 🤝
Week #50: January 5, 2024
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18yznna/comment/kgeaufp/)ethereum
$2250
0.0512
88,900 hodlers subscribed (-37)
477d since the Merge
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18y5x53/comment/kgcj9w8/)ETF approved,
Uncertainty quite improved,
Market barely moved.
Shitpost of the week: u/NeedlerOP
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18tfykq/daily_general_discussion_december_29_2023/kfhx4tr/)2013 : "Wall street bonuses/chinese new year red envelope money"
2017 : "Institutional Money"
2021 : "ETF inflows right around the corner"
2025 : " 5% pension allocation across the board"
2029 : " Gov. crypto funds for all nations "
2033 : " Vitalik crowned god-emperor of mankind"
2037 : " Fully automated luxury abundant gay space communism crypto utopia as humanity spreads across the stars"
...
2100 : "ETH/BTC ratio surpasses 0.10 this cycle"
u/consideritwon starts a discussion about Vitalik's latest ethresearch post
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18smom7/daily_general_discussion_december_28_2023/kf9svsx/)Saw it mentioned yesterday, but I think Vitalik's latest thinking on Ethereum's positioning within the blockchain trilemma design space deserves further discussion. For me this feels like it has the potential to be a large pivot in core Ethereum philosophy and my initial gut feeling is one of discomfort.
Ethereum has up until now allowed anyone with 32 ETH and moderate technical ability to run a validator. At least two of the options discussed by Vitalik in his post would reduce the decentralisation of Ethereum.
The Ethereum community are a pragmatic bunch who don't see things in black and white. Technical solutions require compromise and decentralisation is a spectrum. Even so abandoning the principle of a relatively small fish being able to validate within the network without having to trust 3rd parties feels like a real departure from a long held value.
u/CaptainOfTheGate covers the best Staking as a Service/SaaS providers
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18smom7/daily_general_discussion_december_28_2023/kfb6edi/)The Best Staking-as-a-Service (SAAS) Providers
In approximate order, based mostly on their reputation among Redditors (I read more than I post). For each of these, the user controls their withdrawal keys.
Allnodes
It's $10/month for their Advanced plan, which is the cheapest one that includes MEV (it's worth the extra $5/month). That's equivalent to a fee of only 0.16%, close to zero! They're a top-15% performer on Rated Network over the last 30 days, and mostly use the Teku (a minority client) consensus client; they're also large, if that gives you comfort: 2.6% of all staked ether.
Ethpool
They charge 15% of MEV (10% for 3 nodes, 8% for 30 nodes). That comes out to about 2.9% of all rewards (so yes, about 18x Allnodes). I can't find them on Rated Network. They use minority clients: Lighthouse and Nethermind.
Blox Staking
They have a 0% fee forever (not a typo). Their effectiveness rating on Rated Network is below the 50th percentile as I write this. The company behind them is probably more focused on their new SSV Network now. I noticed that their website gets barely any traffic anymore (it ranks in the millions), but Rated Network says they still stake about 0.53% of staked ether, and they have an active Discord. They use mostly Prysm (the most popular consensus client).
Best solution for leftover amounts when you've staked all your 32-ETH blocks:
Competition in staking is heating up daily (e.g. with DVT solutions coming online), but I'll nominate StakeWise v3. You can stake any amount and don't need to get an LST. You get to choose an operator. Perhaps 4% fees is typical, but I see one offering 1%. Some reputable operators to consider are x (please reply with your opinions).
Some reasons you might want to use SAAS:
You don't want LSTs because you'd have to generate a capital gain when selling ETH for them; and they have high fees, typically 10% for Lido's stETH.
You don't want to solo stake because you may not feel technically competent enough; you may have unreliable internet (or limited capacity) or electricity; or you may not have a stable place for your node (e.g. you're a digital nomad).
u/superphiz has a smart contract shower thought
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18smom7/daily_general_discussion_december_28_2023/kf9xmhu/)I had a shower thought that I wanted to crank out before I forget it. I probably won't format it well, just trying to dump the idea.
Smart contracts are the basic building blocks, not the infrastructure of web3.
Smart contracts are more like transistors.. or more realistically simple circuits. They can do very small tasks, but having a box of simple circuits doesn't really give you extraordinary power. Imagine having a bunch of 555 timer chips - it's a simple but powerful tool, but by itself it's not revolutionary.
The power of simple circuits comes when you string a bunch of them together to do something even more powerful.
We're at the beginning of smart circuit development - when several contracts can work together to complete more powerful functions. From where we're standing this seems difficult and complex. The Intel 8080 processor had 6000 transistors, but the i9-13xxx series have 25 BILLION. We haven't even reached the capacity of building a smart circuit that includes 10-20 smart transistors/smart contracts yet.
Another way to imagine this is from an evolutionary perspective. We think about this stuff called Primodial Soup, the idea that a bunch of the right building blocks (amino acids) in the same place at the right time can give rise to more complex biological compounds. Our current primordial soup is the library of smart contracts we're building now, and in time these basic building blocks will evolve into highly complex organisms.
All of this to say.. we're at the beginning of all of this. We have the foundational building blocks to build complex contraptions that we can't even imagine yet, but given the historical context of building blocks that get organized, it's exceedingly likely that we're on the cusp of rapid evolution in smart contracts.
u/Revanchist1 discusses Vitaliks post on why our industry sticking to crypto values is so important
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18tfykq/daily_general_discussion_december_29_2023/kfdxpcp/)https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/12/28/cypherpunk.html
This is why it's valuable for Ethereum to have a strong social layer, which vigorously enforces its values in those places where pure incentives can't - but without creating a notion of "Ethereum alignment" that turns into a new form of political correctness.
I already felt some influencers were wielding "Ethereum alignment" as a weapon to criticize projects and L2s. Sometimes it's warranted and sometimes you could feel that they were just posturing for their brand. You can feel the "sliminess"...it's just off putting. Like seeing the the lazer eyes profile pics.
My favorite section is What are some of these values?
Vitalik prefectly describes what brought so many of us into crypto when it was solely BTC and dreams of what crypto could eventually do.
A few years later and the space has evolved so much - taking steps towards achieving some of those grand visions. But in taking those steps, we sacrificed the values that gave crypto any real meaningful value. Why remake the the same thing but worse? The values he outlines in the section are core to crypto and give the space value. Devs need to embrace it and figure a way to make it appealing to consumers. The easy path is centralization. The rewarding path is decentralization.
It is very possible to build things within the crypto ecosystem that do not follow these values. One can build a system that one calls a "layer 2", but which is actually a highly centralized system secured by a multisig, with no plans to ever switch to something more secure.
One can build an account abstraction system that tries to be "simpler" than ERC-4337, but at the cost of introducing trust assumptions that end up removing the possibility of a public mempool and make it much harder for new builders to join.
One could build an NFT ecosystem where the contents of the NFT are needlessly stored on centralized websites, making it needlessly more fragile than if those compoents are stored on IPFS.
One could build a staking interface that needlessly funnels users toward the already-largest staking pool.
Resisting these pressures is hard, but if we do not do so, then we risk losing the unique value of the crypto ecosystem, and recreating a clone of the existing web2 ecosystem with extra inefficiencies and extra steps.
Beautiful. You could tell it was something that was bothering him for a while now. So much passion and humility in his writing.
u/domingo_mon reflects on why we hold ETH and u/EnvironmentDry1343 shares their thoughts too
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18u8jft/daily_general_discussion_december_30_2023/kfitog1/)2023 is coming to a close and I want to reflect on what Ethereum means to this community. I have two questions.
Why do you hold Ether?
What is something that Ethereum could accomplish that you can look back in 50 years and say "I held through the bear because I believed in Ethereum's ..." Or "Ethereum is a success to me because it ..."?
For me, I got into crypto in general because I believe that the global financial system is rigged. Anything worth owning became more and more expensive every year, and the dream of owning a home or land became further and further out of reach. It felt like I was on one side of a ballon and my dreams were on the other side. The balloon was being inflated, and it felt like my dreams were literally being inflated away.
Bitcoin struck a chord in me because it espouses transparency, fiscal responsibility, and financial freedom. Here was a money that couldn't be printed into oblivion. Here was a money that wasn't first distributed to the mega-banks and the mega-rich where they buy up assets, creating inflation before finally filtering down to us little people. Here was a money that couldn't be confiscated because the owners embrace ideas that weren't popular. Here was a money that could be sent across the world at the speed of light, 24/7. Here was a money that was controlled by everyday people and not some nameless, unelected, unaccountable, government bureaucrat.
I believe that Bitcoin ossified too soon, and r/Bitcoin started banning anyone who suggested that the code should be upgraded.
That's when I found Ethereum. It was a project that had similar characteristics and desires of Bitcoin but, unlike bitcoin, it was going to continue developing. I hope for Ethereum to become a neutral, global settlement layer. I hold Ether because I want to be a part of the money revolution. I want my children to inherit a world with a fair financial system where the average person can get ahead by saving their ether because the value of their ether isn't being inflated away.
Alright I'll bite, with the preface that a bunch of this is at least inspired by if not outright copied from posts from other people writing about Ethereum.
For me it is about increased coordination/cooperation. I'd been reading about bitcoin for years and didn't really care about it because discussion was often centered around antagonism: a big bad 'They' that controlled this rigged system versus the persecuted victims seeking a new beginning. To me, btc has always seemed more like religion than anything else.
It wasn't until I starting reading about Ethereum that I saw the value in the underpinnings of this new religion. Blockchains, when well designed and implemented, allow people to interact/transact without centralized actors.
People get more done when they work together and the history of human progress is in my opinion the history of humans learning how to cooperate more and kill each other less. Unfortunately, working together usually means giving power to a small group of people that oversee things and are given a mandate to make choices on behalf of others. These centralized actors all too often become corrupted, and the biggest man-made disasters would never be possible without a bunch of centralized actors abusing or misusing their power ("lol lets go kill all the sparrows").
Ethereum obviously is not going to solve the problem of centralized power on its own, but it is one of the few developments that I have seen during my life that allow for improved cooperation without increased centralization. To me, that's big and that's worth sticking around for.
It is unfortunately also why I haven't been as bearish about Ethereum in the past as I am now. A few years ago the question was "How do we implement this new tool in a credibly neutral way?", a technical question with a relatively easily definable answer. Now the question seems to be "Do we really care about decentralization/credible neutrality or do we just want memecoins?". To me (and I suspect most others here) the answer is clear but we have some convincing to do in the broader community.
So I believe in Ethereum's credible neutrality. If we somehow manage to maintain that for the next 50 years, we're golden in my opinion.
TLDR: Ethereum is potentially one of the all too few positive recent developments that might bring humanity forward (even if only by a little bit).
u/Pkickel92 asks about how L2s work and u/hanniabu delivers a comprehensive answer
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18v0z74/daily_general_discussion_december_31_2023/kfp7ucj/)I may have a massive misunderstanding on how the L2 to eth chain relationship works/will work, so I was hoping for some clarification.
Currently, I need to bridge my eth over the the L2 chain which costs a relatively high fee. I can then interact with the L2 and eventually bridge back if I choose to. My understanding is that this is the currently the only way L2 talks with L1. Is this correct? If this is the case, I do not see how Ethereum fees will ever get down to the prices of other L1 solutions which I believe is needed for mass/mainstream adoption since we are currently performing about 15 tps.
Is there someway Ethereum (L1) is getting this data in real time that I am missing? If not and you are forced to stay on L2s (more centralized) to have reasonable transaction what is the benefit of this setup over other L1s like Solona, Polkadot, etc.
Any explanation would be greatly appreciated.
I think your understanding of how the rollups operate. When you bridge the only communication happening is the rollup's balance sheet is updated to reflect the addition/withdrawal of this transaction.
In terms of consensus, for optimistic rollups (e.g. optimism, arbitrum) all the transactions happening on the rollup are compressed (like a zip file) and verified by L1. For zkrollups (e.g. zksync, scroll) a mathematical proof is created for all the transactions and all L1 has to do is verify the proof.
As L2 blocks get more transactions, the cost per transaction goes down as the shared costs are spread out across more transactions (economies of scale).
(Tangent: The compression of optimistic rollups requires less of the L2 and more of the L1 (and hence more cost). For zkrollups generating the proof requires a lot of effort from the L2, but is very cheap for the L1 to verify.)
L2 blocks don't happen at the same time as L1. They vary depending on the rollup, but I think most have a target of 2 seconds per block. Ethereum blocks are 12 seconds, so there's 6 L2 blocks in each L1 block.
So L2s benefit from math and compression for more efficient settlement as well as economies of scale to provide cheaper transactions. This will get even cheaper after the update in the next few months (~april 2024) by creating a separate fee market for L1 blockspace specifically dedicated for L2s. So they no longer need to be competing with L1 transactions for blockspace. This change also makes transactions costs more predictable for rollups, rather than needing to slightly overcharge to account for any potential unexpected gas spikes.
After this update L2 transactions will get cheaper (estimated at up to 1/100th depending on rollup design), falling in the range of a few cents to maybe even less than a penny in some cases.
u/interweaver is still fighting the good fight to diversify the stake. He later shares some results from such good work in action!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18wi7t1/daily_general_discussion_january_2_2024/kg0r4b1/)Hey EthFinance, happy 2024! I have some good news to start off the year :D
Something like 15% of all staked Ether is staked through Coinbase, and only a little over a month ago, they posted in a blog post that they're using 100% Geth to operate that stake.
We're still in the grips of a Geth client supermajority, with an estimated 75% to 85% of staked Ether using Geth under the hood, so Coinbase's 15% stake using 100% Geth is a big impediment to bringing that number down below 66%, where we'll be safe from an instant catastrophic fork if Geth has a forking bug.
Over the last month, some of you who are on Twitter/X may have been following my campaign to tweet every day at Coinbase to try to get them to diversify their Ethereum execution clients. This was partly an informational campaign to make more people aware of the issues supermajority clients like Geth present, and partly a gentle pressure campaign to get Coinbase to consider switching.
Today this campaign led to a clarifying tweet from Will Robinson, VP of Engineering at Coinbase, that Coinbase is definitely planning to diversify their staking execution clients!
There's no timeline associated with this, so I expect it might still take a few months, but it's very exciting that they've finally publicly confirmed that they are aligned on client diversity, and are working towards that goal internally.
I don't think my daily tweets changed any internal Coinbase policy; they've likely been working on this for a while already. But it did enable us to get a public statement from them on their client diversity plans!
If you're interested in my (now concluded) tweet campaign, you can see my most recent one here, with links to the previous tweets.
Thanks everyone who supported that campaign, and also for every one of you who's running a node with minority execution clients! I'm super hopeful that we can finally get Ethereum to a place of full client diversity in 2024, with resilience against any single client's forking bug.
Happy 2024, EthFinance!
I made a longer post on this below but it looks like it might be hidden, so I'll just share the punchline -
Coinbase (or a high-up employee, rather) committed today to diversifying their staked Ether away from supermajority client Geth!
This is amazing news given they're currently running 100% Geth with 15% of all staked Ether.
I'm considerably more optimistic now that this year will be the year Ethereum achieves full client diversity!
u/MrVodnik shares some key pointers on keeping your funds secure when signing on new websitesd
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18wi7t1/daily_general_discussion_january_2_2024/kg12t25/)Oh, it's a complex one.
tl;dr; There are two types of approvals. Don't sign what you don't understand. Otherwise, you'll be fine.
Signing is all that your wallet do. If you prepare a signature of a tx, someone else can send this out. So the rule of thumb is - don't sign anything you don't understand. I.e., avoid signing "hex" data that is not translatable to human-readable text (e.g. don't sign "0x2b3cf00321a..." but sign "I agree to terms and services of xyz").
When it comes to approvals, these are NOT part of the Ethereum protocol! What we come to understand as approvals, is an ERC20 method to allow other parties (mainly contracts) to move your funds. In most (if not all) of legit ERC20 contracts/tokens, it works as expected, and in scamy ones - you don't care about them anyway. It is good to understand what and how a malicious signature/transaction can do to your funds. Considering above - it can only drain ERC20 that you've approved. If you hold more exotic items in your wallet, then its up to you to verify how they act.
When it comes to approvals, there are two main types out there. The first one is the standard "approve" function of the ERC20 spec, which sets on-chain record of whom and for how much, can move the token in question. The second one is "permit2" introduced by Uniswap and slowly adopted by other dApps. It extends standard approval systems and allows off-chain approvals, which I guess is what you're asking about.
u/benido2030 has the monthly staking update
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18wi7t1/daily_general_discussion_january_2_2024/kfysit4/)Here's the ninth edition of the monthly staking update
First monthly staking update for 2024. Obviously the state of staking will be something to watch this year. A lot of people expect way more ETH staked, especially if there is an ETH ETF and it is allowed to stake the underlying ETH. Lido dominance will be something to have an eye on. Then there is eigenlayer of course... And maybe if there are some solo staker airdrops, we will also see new inflows from "small guys". So let's dive in!
Validator overview - total: 1051685 validators*
- 901635 active (December: 881447; +20188 / +2,2%, | May: 554322; +347313 / +62%)
- 384 pending (December: 388; -4 / -1% | May: 15537; -15153 / -97,5%)
- 0 exiting (December: 722; 0 / -100% | May: 7333; -7333 / -100%)
- 205331 exited (December: 169613; +35718 / +21% | May: 39341; +165990 / +422%)
The validator set keeps on growing. The growth isn't crazy and there are also continuous exits every month, but generally speaking number go up. Right now we are at 24,2% of all ETH staked. In my opinion, there's nothing really "fancy" to see here.
Client diversity numbers**
Consensus
- Prysm 41% (December: 41%, May: 38%)
- Lighthouse 33% (December: 34%, May: 37%)
- Teku 16% (December: 16%, May: 17%)
- Nimbus 8% (December: 7%, May: 6%)
- Lodestar 1% (December: 1%, May: 1%)
Execution
- Geth 84% (December: 84%)
- Nethermind 8% (December: 8%)
- Erigon 2% (December: 2%)
- Besu 5% (December: 5%)
Client diversity is more or less the same it was at the end of last year. Nimbus slightly gaining share, which is good, but not really important, since Consensus clients are looking okay.
Execution keeps on being an issue. Geth's share with a constant 84% is still way too high. How can we change that?
- Switch from Geth to a minority client. It really isn't that hard and might have other benefits like a better feature set (e.g. auto pruning), which might help to make a decision.
- There is e.g. Arbora.eth on Twitter asking Coinbase to stop using Geth as their sole execution client. Join them, retweet, post, pressure bigger entities to change their setup. I think retweeting is rather low effort, but might help to spread the word.
Pool distribution***
- Lido 31,7% (December: 32,3%)
- Coinbase 14,3% (December: 14,2%)
- Binance 3,7% (December: 4,1%)
- Rocket Pool 2,9% (December: 2,9%)
- Kraken 2,8% (December: 2,7%)
+ a lot of whales, smaller staking providers etc.
With the launch of Blast Lido was gaining market share last month. This has stopped and interestingly Lido is basically back to 31,x% like before the launch. Now obviously we can't really tell where it would be without Blast, but my guess is lower and in a best case the launch only pushed it up temporarily and market share will continue to fall.
Obviously we should not rely on the market handling it! If you have (w)stETH please think about withdrawing from Lido and/ or depositing into Diva. If you participate in the "Diva vampire attack" you will not only receive a new LST but also Diva tokens. Interestingly Diva already has 0.4% market share and hasn't even launched yet. Let's make that number go up!
All percentages are rounded, so this is not 100% accurate, but should be good enough to show changes in the coming months.
* https://beaconcha.in/validators#all
** https://clientdiversity.org/#distribution
*** https://dune.com/hildobby/eth2-staking
P.S. Completely unrelated, but Murs 3:16 (The 9th Edition) produced by 9th Wonder is imo still one of the best LPs ever. 9th is an incredible producer and I really like Murs flow. He's probably not the best lyricist, but innovative and even had a track about Bitcoin in like 2016 or 2017.
u/ElectricMutiny shares their story of loss as a warning for each of us to look after our own ETH carefully
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18xc4ml/daily_general_discussion_january_3_2024/kg3w4tf/)Two days ago I wrote in the daily about how I lost all of my holdings. The next two days were the worst in my grown up life, just hours of hours of despair and sleepless anxiety. The worst part was seeing all of my ETH in that foreign wallet address, so close, yet so far away.
Today is better. The sun is shining. I have my little apartment and my family and friends. I did realise some gains during the last bull run which i reinvested in something safer. And my sister still have her holdings, and I will enjoy seeing her get rich during the upcoming bull. She deserves it.
So take my carelessness, my stupidity, as a warning. If you are not careful, you will get recked.
Week #49: December 29, 2023
Upcoming Guests
- Jan. 5th - Lantern Finance
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18tfykq/comment/kfdow1q/)Ethereum
$2355
0.055
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18oz4wq/daily_general_discussion_december_23_2023/kenzoq5/)Turning up the crowd,
Blackrock goes blockchain aloud,
Excitement allowed.
Shitpost of the week: u/superphiz
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18nfxvo/daily_general_discussion_december_21_2023/keen5d7/)Grifting 101
- Find the grift. Contrary to popular belief, you never need to start your own grift, just find one that's in progress and join in.
- Fill your bags. It's EXTREMELY important that you fill BEFORE you shill. If you're joining the grift too late, you're only going to be exit liquidity, so it's important that you join a grift as early as possible. Bonus points here if you're an accredited investor and you can buy into the grift early before the retail investors (you're going to need them later!).
- Buy the narrative. It doesn't really matter what the narrative is: "faster than bitcoin", "cheaper smart contracts", "tons of partnerships", "a new banking system", "Visa-level capacity". Whatever. It doesn't matter what the grift is as long as you know it. The BEST grifts include promises of future activity and "unlocks".
- Shill like your life depends on it. This is where you REALLY earn your money. Just like any ponzi, you'll need to convince EVERYONE to buy into the grift because you need the price to go up and you need tons of exit liquidity so you don't get dumped on. You'll need to tap into all the socials you can, and even better if you can get podcast/youtube hits. Use whatever tactics work for you: education, insight, sarcasm, humor.. it doesn't matter. The goal is just to saturate the ecosystem with discussion about the grift. It doesn't matter whether the traffic is flattering or not, you're just looking for saturation. If you do a good job, you'll get free rent in everyone's mind AND you'll amplify the power of the shill.
- Wait for the flywheel to kick in. With enough social activity, the flywheel will eventually kick in. This means that the price will go parabolic because the social work has made everyone aware of the grift, and when they see price movement they'll have fomo and buy in. The MOMENT the flywheel effect kicks in you've GOT to be on your toes to prepare your exit. THIS is where retail investors are critical. You're looking for dudes who want to make a quick buck and put all of their faith in charts. These are the guys who will put their "fun money" into the grift in hopes of maybe buying a car or something with the money they make.
- The parabolic spike/game of chicken. Timing here is critical. Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors are primed to dump hard, so since you're lower on the food chain you'll need to dump first. This is the game of chicken: you need to dump BEFORE everyone else does. This is pretty easy, take 10x and get the hell out of there - no one wants to be left holding this worthless shit. (If you're a dumbass, you'll hold too long and be the exit liquidity. If this happens once, you'll survive, but if this happens more than once you need to quit grifting - you're not a grifter, you're just dumb exit liquidity. )
- The crash will come, but you'll have made a fuckton of money and you're sitting pretty, but you CAN'T stop now! if you only survive one grift you'll die poor. The crash requires a lot of continued social activity to SIMULTANEOUSLY convince all of your followers that you were duped just like them, but ALSO that you made a ton of money. You've GOT to maintain your credibility if you're going to grift again. Don't blow this step! Your followers need to build faith in your ability during this stage.
- Okay, so you completed a successful grift! Congratulations!! You might get 5-6 grift cycles out of the same coin if the climate is right. This is harder if the grift had promises of future activity, but those are really sweet because you'll make a LOT more money on it. Most grifters will take a month off before spending another six month cycle pumping the next grift. In that month off, they'll re-establish their credibility by promoting solid assets like Ether. So, I mean, grifters really are good folks after all, right?
u/LogrisTheBard explains Gearbox V3
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18nfxvo/daily_general_discussion_december_21_2023/kedembr/)As ever, I wish we had more discussion around here about app developments on Ethereum rather than... whatever the depressive topics have been the past few days.
In the spirit of being the change I want to see in the world let me plug Gearbox V3. Basically Gearbox is a leverage application that removes the leverage component from the underlying application and allows you to apply leverage using Defi legos on their own. Think of it like 'modular Defi'. The key insight that enabled leverage is that when you borrow funds, the funds aren't given to you, they are held in escrow by the protocol so you can't just run off with them. Now, there's no sense having the protocol just hold onto borrowed funds. The reason you're borrowing is to do something. So, since you aren't being given the funds the protocol has to do that something on your behalf.
For older leverage applications, the something they would do on your behalf was the application. You could use dydx and get leveraged price exposure to an asset but the leverage was tightly coupled to a dex. This leads to liquidity fragmentation. While the nature of the price exposure mechanism changed with apps like GMX, perps still tightly couple the liquidity source for leverage with their application. By contrast, Gearbox allows you to execute leveraged strategies that actually execute against Curve or Uniswap.
To execute a strategy with Gearbox you put up your collateral, borrow the funds required to execute your strategy, and then execute it using a plugin to any Defi application they support. For example if you wanted to go 3x long, you could put up 1x collateral, borrow 3x whatever you're shorting, swap to 3x of your long asset using any supported Dex, and hold that position while paying interest on the borrow. When plugged into something like Aave this also let's you do fancy stuff like profit from interest rate spreads or leverage your way into a Curve LP Yearn pool which auto compounds rewards back to you. The potential here is open ended and incredible.
Gearbox v3 does a few cool things. First it allows borrowers to have better granularity on which position is secured by which collateral. The basic idea is they create a smart contract with your name on it that is executed according to a strategy you configure. Second it enables lenders to underwrite their own risk and choose what types of risk their funds are exposed to. This is a common trend I've seen lately in Defi. We are steadily moving away from pooling everyone into the same risk bracket and moving towards programmable money where everyone can adjust their own risk.
If you have time I'd suggest you dig in or you know, try it yourself. It's far more fun to focus on exciting things happening at home than to focus on narrative noise from CT and bring it here.
u/Defacticool shares their experience getting phished so you don't have to
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18nfxvo/daily_general_discussion_december_21_2023/keemcbk/)Alright so got hacked for the first time
Well "hacked", I accidentally approved something in metamask that allowed them to take all my eth and one NFT.
Like 24k USD worth in total, which isnt the end of the world luckily enough. Luckily my main stack isnt on this adress.
I got fooled because I was trying to do the Frame airdrop and when looking at their twitter (the correct twitter) a fake frame account with a check mark (thanks for that Elon) were in their replies and I wasnt observant enough.
idiotic of me, but anyway
I still want to utilise this adress to claim airdrops and the like but I obviously cant do so when I have this hanging over it. I'm looking at the approvals checker on etherscan but cant find any approvals I did today or any access given today, so this fraudulent acces/approval isnt there.
Does anyone else know how I do/how I should do to remove their access to my address?
Thanks for any help
Edit: Also I suppose it doesnt matter now so for any interested sleuths heres my address for your perusal: 0x139373F9FFeDCf909518096fC165f3b87fD7046C
After looking over it it doesnt seem like I have any offending approvals. Is it possible for a phisher to have some other kind of access still?
Edit 2: The offending transactions seem to have been these ones, in this chronological order:
https://etherscan.io/tx/0x07344545d7b3e3ce7032dc5319ee9e3dbce291bcdbe3b798982055bb7b6a6567
https://etherscan.io/tx/0x4b7a6c41aed26af4280b24c7da787b0b5732a43e34bf81d6cea79c02857c2bed
https://etherscan.io/tx/0x8c374ec10e5254289a4c224e6dfae6c0a76a0466f0ab4bf7d803844f05c421f3
What I'm worried about now is that the scammer can repeat some function in order to drain my adress again in the future, if I fill it with some ETH for gas for example
If anyone with that are above my hobbyist level of ability could help tell me if anything in these transactions point to this being repeatable I would greatly appreciate it! (or just point me in a helpful direction would be really nice too)
u/haurog has a post about wallet security and phishing protection which you simply can't miss
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18o7zxl/daily_general_discussion_december_22_2023/keg0art/)There have been too many people being scammed out of some of their crypto holdings with the recent frame airdrop. The frame airdrop is legit, there are just too many fake claim websites wanting your money. If you use the network please consider installing/enabling transaction previews. These help you understanding what you are actually signing before it gets broadcasted:
Either use:
-
Rabby Wallet which has this included in their wallet already. It is on the very paranoid side, so maybe you start clicking the warnings away automatically after some time.
-
Use Metamask snaps which provide this. I shortly tested Wallet Guard which does the job. I am sure there are other good options in their security section: https://snaps.metamask.io/explore/
-
Install an additional extension like pocket universe or fire. I use both of them in parallel for many months now. Every time I receive a signing request they pop up and inform me about what I am going to sign.
All of these solutions put another actor in your signing process which could get attacked. Be aware of that. I am also not sure how much information is shared with whom in all these solutions. The additional extensions have served me well in the last months in combination with the frame wallet. I think the Rabby wallet is the most user friendly one, but a bit too paranoid for my taste, especially if you are using very new protocols.
I tested all of these solutions on my go-to scam website I found some time ago, a tornado cash fork, which wants to steal all my funds. All of the above solution told me exactly what I sign and Metamask even wanted to prevent me from visiting the scam site.
u/Qwertybop1 shares a big moment they're celebrating on-chain!
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18o7zxl/daily_general_discussion_december_22_2023/kegucek/)https://etherscan.io/tx/0xde92b790ebd82fa73b69b3f1d32d1f5b3d11649971da43e20593c7e7099a0fba
We got married onchain yesterday!
u/strawdar summarises the new ETH research proposal
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18oz4wq/daily_general_discussion_december_23_2023/kemdljh/)So if I'm reading this proposal correctly:
-
Beacon stakers would no longer receive MEV rewards
-
MEV relays would sort of be replaced by execution ticket markets. This opens up the possibility to introduce burn on what today is MEV rewards.
-
Block builders would buy execution tickets and run execution proposers
EDIT: I think I'm making some assumptions on number 3, because the proposal says this is orthogonal to PBS. So number 3 could involve multiple parties or it could not.
EDIT2: Before stakers get up in arms about MEV rewards going away, this proposal would open up a new avenue for speculation on execution tickets: "Explicitly defining an execution proposer lottery allows validators to participate only by choice. If they like the idea of flipping a coin and getting a high-value slot, they are free to buy execution tickets."
EDIT3: More stuff is sinking in now. You could in theory choose to run your validators in a mode similar to today by configuring them to purchase an execution ticket for each upcoming slot, but the cost of that ticket will be market driven while today they are essentially distributed uniformly and randomly.
u/krokodilmannchen has the latest on the ETF front
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18oz4wq/daily_general_discussion_december_23_2023/kektmdn/)Latest on the ETF front: issuers have until next Friday to amend their filings. The SEC wants cash create only, and AP agreements. Whoever gets these done, will get a "go".
Also, Blackrock will seed with $10m on January 3rd (subject to change).
Also, they have an Ether ETF filing. ;-)
u/masterRoshi9 shares a grounded investment thesis
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18poy1s/daily_general_discussion_december_24_2023/kepw80a/)If you frequent crypto Twitter and are feeling doubt about ETH, and FOMO or anger over Solana, it’s worth checking yourself and asking why you’re invested the way you are, and why you feel like that way. Personally speaking the vast majority of my stack is, has been, and will remain ETH because I can hold it and sleep well at night expecting it to go up over time with minimal downside risk relative to other crypto assets. It has arguably the best fundamentals of any asset, not only in crypto, but in any market. On short time horizons it won’t always or even often perform the best, especially in a bull market where narratives rule the day, but it will provide the best risk adjusted returns imo, and wealth preservation can be just as difficult if not more, than capital appreciation. I’m still buying.
Having said that, The recent performance of Solana, and other tokens that are purely speculative bets, is a great example of why it pays to be open minded and why it can be helpful to diversify. I maintain a percentage of my portfolio for speculative bets, trading, gambling, etc. Doesn’t work for everyone, you have to be honest and cut yourself off if you’re just burning capital, but it’s fun, curbs FOMO, and ideally lets me capture some additional upside from narratives or short term plays. I missed Solana, but made some gains on WIF, and had some fun shit posting with friends about it in our own internal group chats. Also have some medium-term holds and narratives I plan to dabble in this bull market.
It’s easy in crypto, especially if you’re on CT, to feel like you’re in a rat race against everyone else, look at gains someone else has made off of something you consider vaporware, and let it upset you. Even easier to let narratives that ETH is dead and that X-coin with no fundamentals is the future of France upset you. Don’t. If you’ve been here for the bear and have been buying ETH then you’re up too. Normies aren’t even here yet. Enjoy the ride. Be happy for newer or smaller participants coming into money for the first time. This is how crypto grows. Most importantly do not feed into tribal hate. Talking down about the ecosystem that just made users money doesn’t attract participants to our ecosystem or encourage learning, it just pits you against them and feeds into negative sentiment. Be welcoming and focus that energy towards more productive endeavors. Learn from Vitalik. It’s impossible to hate a guy that is perpetually positive towards others. And he does an excellent job framing all of crypto as an “us” vs the them, if I do say so myself. https://x.com/matthuang/status/1738810362022232210
In the end I think the Ethereum ecosystem will capture Solana’s moat, but that time is not now. If you too think that time will come, good news, you can position for it. These are my biggest catalysts for ETH this year:
- 4844 will drastically reduce gas fees for L2s. A world where Arbitrum/Optimism/ZKsync/etc is as cheap as Solana is a level playing field at attracting normies, memes, whatever. New L2s will create new opportunities for airdrops and new apps that take off.
- A potential ETH ETF will create a speculative demand for ETH like nothing else. Even if it doesn’t go through people will buy in anticipation
- Restaking is the most under-discussed catalyst for ETH the asset. Not only will you have a deflationary asset with native yields, but potentially with ponzy-like yields. If ETH approaches even close to 20% yield from restaking at any point the demand will be massive. Especially if the ETF brings in more traditional investors.
Basically what I’m saying is this: we should all be happy that the bull market seems to be back, and that we all have the opportunity to make money again in the coming year. If you disagree and are still bearish than maybe this post isn’t for you. Either way, enjoy the holidays, and may golden showers rain upon /r/ethfinance dailies every week for the next year!
u/Bob-Rossi reflects on a year of delegate representation
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18r1c9q/daily_general_discussion_december_26_2023/kezzi27/)In the spirit of year-end reflection and New Year's resolutions, I am looking for feedback / suggestions regarding my delegating duties of ARB and HOP I've taken on this year. Asking as I'm still relatively new to this and want to improve when I can - don't be shy or holdback anything in feedback. For some context, my goal has largely been to take on these roles to help get some of the great minds on r/ethfinance a way to feel represented in governance. I'm not sure that has happened to the extent I've envisioned, but hopefully I'm making some impact and will grow into that in the future.
Obviously, I have no way to tell who actually delegates to me, but I'm assuming a bulk of the people are those who post here. So figured this was the best place to ask. So in short, do let me know if there are things you think I can improve on or ways you felt I've let you down. As well as things I've done that you would like to see me keep doing. Even if you aren't specifically a delegate to me.
Some thoughts / questions of my own:
Voting Transparency --- I do try to post DAO updates here both for informational purposes and to keep myself transparent. I know following actually Tally / Snapshot votes is a pain, so I hope this helps. Unfortunately, ARB is a little difficult since the forum links are shadow-banned. I do try to comment in the Arbitrum / HOP forums on my votes where it feels warranted (or on the actual Snapshot votes themselves). No good way around the ARB problem, but I do link the votes and do a summary of decision here to help with that. I also try to wait until a few votes have passed to 'batch' my updates and avoid clogging up the daily toooo much, however if people would prefer immediate updates (say, within a few days of the vote ending) I can switch to that.
Voting Participation --- I do try to vote on everything that comes up, since that is ultimately the fundamental role here. Regrettably, I did miss a few votes over my time doing this. I think about 5 or 6 overall earlier in the summer across both DAOs. No excuses, and I've made sure not to miss stuff going forward. I'll add, the Arbitrum STIP voting I did probably vote in maybe 1/4th of the total pool of candidates. The structure was a major issue IMO, which I brought up in the DAO forums. Expecting delegates to vet and vote on 100+ projects in that timeframe was impossible, and it does sound like future STIP / LTIPs are making note of that. And I'm not sure many delegates did vote in 100% of those (hats off to those who did). Sort of a one-off, but wanted to clarify that situation, and I do wish in hindsight I took a little more time for that.
Calls --- I do try to attend the ARB and HOP calls when I can. I work full time, so it's as schedule permits (although ARB does record the call and HOP has notes). ARB I've been admittedly lacking, but I've been better having joined the last 2. This is one of my top goals, to have better attendance here. My Q here is this - do people want updates on this type of thing? Is that too much? It sort of goes along the lines of r/ethfinance input as I'll discuss below.
r/Ethfinance Input --- I know sort of the point of being a delegate is so that people don't have to worry about day to day minutia. However, I do want to feel out people's opinion on this. For notable / larger / more controversial topics should I try to reach out for input more? Do people rather just me 'read the room' and vote that way. I try to vote in a way that is best for the particular DAOs & the Ethereum chain, but again I want to leverage the mindshare that is here to do that as I am still only human. Also, I want to re-iterate that I welcome people to reach out. that doesn't happen much, so if there are ways people think I can be more inviting, for a lack of a better word, let me know. I'd love to be able to be a bridge between ideas here and ultimately discussion in front of said DAOS.
Updates --- Basically, a mis-mash of the above. I want to walk the line as best I can between over and under updating on issues. So thoughts on this would be appreciated!
Twitter --- I don't really like Twitter, but I made one as I can't stick my head in the sand. I don't really use it that much... I'd be curious to those who think if I should use it more? I'm thinking maybe just doing updates there as well for those who follow. I don't want to dive into CT degeneracy, but I probably should use it as a space to get updates out?
And finally, a thank you! There isn't a day that goes by where I'm not aware of the number of people that trust me with this. I know governance isn't that sexy of a thing, but it's really cool that people feel they can trust their vote with me and that isn't lost.
u/lotec needs your help to push Coinbase into diversifying their stake
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18rth8u/daily_general_discussion_december_27_2023/kf3cws3/)It would be great if we could give Arbora.eth a bit more publicity for his campaign to have Coinbase switch away from Geth.
u/the_swingman points out the struggle newcomers would have in finding good crypto information
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18rth8u/daily_general_discussion_december_27_2023/kf4l80v/)Interesting you're saying this today, I was just thinking about how lost a newcomer is in this space. Even if they found this subreddit, (could you imagine the lost faith in crypto if they visited r/cc or even r/Ethereum first?) I'm not so sure it would be obvious this is the place to trust or realize this sub is putting out the most critical/thoughtful info/discussion.
Imagine someone out there today (which I'm sure happens everyday) says, today is the day I'm going to get into crypto. Ugh, I'm getting a migraine just thinking about being that person.
Legitimately, im wondering where that person goes. The options are wild. Crypto Twitter, YouTube, reddit, discord, overall asking Google? Ooof. All of those can be very hit or miss with more misses than hits. Even finding coinbase and reading through their learning center can lead you down the wrong path.
There is just so much to comprehend on a fundamental level, then deciphering what is a quality crypto and why? The space is so polarized. For someone brand new, how quick would they learn the differences between ETH and BTC or XRP for that matter, or literally any other crypto. What's the chances of them learning about LSDs or even the basics of Defi? Where is the drop off on the learning curve for most people?
Thinking about if I was brand new, jumping into "crypto" today, what would be the most helpful thing for me to learn and understand.. and how would I find it?
Off the top of my head, personally, I would like a flow chart. Something that could help me visualize the crypto space. Maybe a few versions of the flowchart, basic, intermediate, advanced .. clickable keywords that give a popup of basic definitions.
How would I find it? Idk, maybe this is where the Maverick funds do some SEO and try to find it's way on the first page of Google.
u/benido2030 shares some thoughts on winning and not comparing to others
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18rth8u/daily_general_discussion_december_27_2023/kf6c22k/)Some thoughts on winning
When I was a student, online poker became popular. By chance (I don't even remember how) I found an online poker school that handed out 50$ for free after passing a quiz. I started playing Fixed Limit on the low low stakes (well, because 50$ isn't a lot) but learned a lot, became better, moved up. When I reached 5/10$ (still in FL), I couldn't handle the daily swings anymore. After all I was still a student, had like 750$ a month for everything from rent to food to cloths to drinks. So being in a position of losing 1000$+ on any given day, basically within 30 mins was too much for me. I played 3/6$ for a long time, switched to NL at some point and made it to NL200 games, but felt uncomfy again. I think I was a decent player (but nowhere near the best players on the high stakes) and could have moved higher with my bankroll and skill, but never did. I met a lot of high stakes players that made a lot of money (e.g. I am pretty sure I talked to Hasu a few times). A lot of friends made a lot of money just playing mid stakes, not even grinding nose bleeds. Later I lost interest, because I started working and didn't want to grind at day and night.
As my second job, I joined a startup rather early, just after they had secured the first significant funding. The startup had created a new product, which turned out to be very successful, used the funding to do performance marketing and within 3 years, the company grew from basically 100 to 1000 FTE. A lot of "high profile" people were hired, earning a lot more than I did, despite being assholes, not being a cultural fit and also not delivering any meaningful results. But they were great politically, knew what to say, when to say it and how to impress the (also rather young) founders. I was living the culture, delivering, but earned like 50% and hated everything about the bullshit bingo guys.
When a very good friend of mine quit his job, he still had some free time before his new gig started and he asked me what to do with it. That was at the end of 2017/ beginning of 2018. I said "there's this crypto thingy, seems to be interesting, maybe dive it?". We decided to invest 1000$ together. I was still very risk averse and didn't feel comfortable putting money into something that went up and down so fast, so I was happy we did it together. We bought the literal top in January 2018. Got like 0.7X ETH on a Friday, which made +100$ until Saturday. I still remember the euphoria, that day marked the literal pico top of the cycle. I learned a lot, eventually started living on-chain, but never really participated in farming, cause I still dislike spending ETH for tx I don't really need to do for a potential airdrop I might or might not receive. I did receive a lot of airdrops, but I am also pretty sure that compared to others here, my airdrops are tiny.
Also I had a neteller credit card connected to my Amazon account and basically ordered stuff for free as a student and bought a new (small) car just after finishing university, because I had made 50k in online poker.
While I was "only" earning 50% of the supposedly high flyers, my salary 2,5xed within 3 years and I had way more money than I needed (and you are probably aware by now, that spending / investing money is not a strength). I also started as a senior role, but at one point managed 150 people and three departments.
While I probably should have invested more, invested earlier, farmed more and should have way more ETH than I have now, I have received a decent amount or airdrops that are a huge boost to my portfolio. More importantly, I have learned a lot, about investing, finance, how poorly I invested before, how many basic concepts I didn't fully understand and how important it is to make conscious financial decisions.
Don't compare yourself to the guys that make more money in poker, at work or in crypto. Compare yourself to the guy in the mirror that wouldn't have played poker, wasn't lucky to join a growing startup that allowed you to grow a lot in a short amount of time (both financially, but also when it comes to responsibilities and hence your CV), or wouldn't have invested in crypto because that friend you needed would have said "no".
If there is one thing that I have learned it's that comparing usually won't help you. It usually doesn't motivate. It actually kills motivation. It gives you a hard time emotionally. Don't compare yourself to the guy on twitter that brags with that 7digit PnL. Don't blame yourself for not receiving the next airdrop on 5 wallets instead of one.
Comparing doesn't make sense, because your risk appetite is unique. If you accept that you are defined by who/ how you are, you will be able to accept outcomes way better. We can't expect to make millions if we don't invest a lot (of time, money, ETH). And that's okay!
Celebrate that one airdrop like it was the lottery. Be happy about your first ETH like it was worth a million. Don't try to be/ act different then you truly are. And you'll be winning!
2024 Predictions
Week #48: December 22, 2023
Upcoming Guests
- Jan. 5th - Lantern Finance
The morning trinity
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18o7zxl/comment/kefkaui/)Ethereum
$2260
88,715 hodlers subscribed (+6)
Day 463 since The Merge
Weekly Haiku: u/Jey_s_TeArS
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18l1qbj/comment/kdxz76f/)Yes we tokenize,
No you won't believe your eyes,
New money arise.
Shitpost of the week: u/doomfuzzslayer
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18mnig7/daily_general_discussion_december_20_2023/ke8v57v/)Sold my ETH for a 2020 Honda yesterday. I’m out of crypto entirely now (gladly). I know the used car market has been hot the past year but I’m betting it has some room to run. IF I buy into crypto again (with my used car profits) it’ll be a basket of sub 1000 MC coins with 100x potential and some SOL/AVAX for stability (they’re the new BTC). I’ll be fine with a 10x tho. Regardless Eth is done imo and everyone here is wasting their time. Advice (not financial) get out before the inevitable epic crash and buy something with more upside. Aside from used cats, garbage pail kids (first edition only with stickers intact) are looking strong.
EDIT: meant to say used cars in that last sentence, but used cats also have more potential than ETH so not gonna correct.
EDIT2: meant this whole post is a joke. Bad timing I know but hoping to lighten the mood a bit
u/benido2030 has found 2023 to be their favourite year in crypto
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18i1xpa/daily_general_discussion_december_14_2023/kdcy6uu/)I am tired. Hyped, cause I believe 2024 will be a good year, but more tired now that it’s still 2023. I think that’s partly the bear market which is exhausting, because I promised myself to learn a lot and pay attention to benefit during the bull market. But probably also just psychology cause the year is coming to an end and humans are strange. It’s an arbitrary date, but still it feels significant, I guess also because of the holidays. In any case this year was my favourite year in crypto. I have learned a lot, developed new interests (eg for the importance and details of governance) and the past 12 months made me feel like home in ETHfinance. I love this community since I joined (2019 or beginning of 2020, don’t remember) but somehow 2023 was special and I would like to thank all of you!
That being said I’ll post less for the next 2 weeks I guess, but I’ll stick around, will read and will be back in 2024. love you all!
u/hanniabu defines some terms which some people seem to be confusing
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18i1xpa/daily_general_discussion_december_14_2023/kdetb5y/)There seems to be some confusion around terminology. Maybe the terms have been diluted from when I learned them, but this is how I'd define these terms:
- Hardware wallet - This does not mean cold wallet. It means it's not a software wallet and uses hardware to contain your key and do signing.
- Hot wallet - This is a wallet you're actively using. It should not be where your primary funds are stored since there's a higher risk of losing funds. It can be a hardware wallet, it does not (and I'd recommend should not) be a software wallet.
- Cold wallet - This is where you'd store a larger portion of your funds. You don't use this with apps. The goal is as minimal exposure as possible. This should definitely be a hardware wallet.
- Cold storage - This used to be the same as a cold wallet but I see the meanings have diverged. This would be a hardware wallet that is completely airgapped and only has incoming transactions. This is meant for maximum security for long term funds that you don't plan on touching for years.
u/haurog explains parallel execution on Solana and some criticisms of its consensus mechanism
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18i1xpa/daily_general_discussion_december_14_2023/kdc3n2k/)In my understanding the solana parallelism relies on the transaction submitter to tell them what contracts/states they touch. It is assumed that they are honest. The attack vector on the paralellisation then goes like this. Just tell the SVM you are touching all AMM contracts, even if you do pretty much nothing in your transaction. The SVM then cannot process the other AMM swaps in parallel, but has to wait until it has processed yours before it can do the other swaps. You force it in doing at least one step serial. Transactions are cheap, so nothing stoping you spamming the network reserving resources left and right. I do not think one can bring Solana down with such an attack, but it would slow down the SVM quite a bit.
If you want to learn about some real issues with solana in the consensus mechanism they use, there is a recent conference paper by the distributed computing group at the ETH, a university, in Switzerland: https://tik-db.ee.ethz.ch/file/9d40dad802dd12d9ba1f1b7c1759920c/
I only skimmed over it, but here are some juicy bits:
- These tests seem to confirm our basic understanding that Solana does not fully achieve consensus. In this paper we show how a single malicious validator, once elected as leader, might be able to halt the Solana blockchain.
- We also observe some inconsistent behavior, which is not readily explained by any of the consensus rules we are aware of.
- In many places it was hard for us to bring differences between the whitepaper, documentation, and code together into a coherent picture.
- Solana takes a non-standard approach to achieving state replication in view of possible (adversarial) failures, making strong assumptions about the failure cases that can arise in practice, that seem to go far beyond the normal theoretical bounds for these problems.
App devs might want to develop on SVM for its speed, but to be honest, there are not that many dApps on Solana, so it seems to be difficult to find dApp devs. They had quite some incentives in 2021 I think to onboard people, but it was a limited success as far as I remember. Maybe now with the renewed speculation they might attract more settlers, but we will see what happens. I guess generally Ethereum people are interested in Solanas tech, because they implemented things which need to be solved on the Ethereum side as well. In my opinion, parallelization is not the bottleneck on Ethereums side just yet, it is probably more important for L2s. The Bottleneck is rather the state size and how it is stored/accessed which needs to be solved before one can reap benefits from a fully parallelized EVM. And I am not aware that Solana has solved that issue, but as always I could be very wrong there.
u/SpontaneousDream has a Coinbase vs the SEC update
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18itav8/daily_general_discussion_december_15_2023/kdjv9cx/)Surprised there isn't more talk about the SEC decision today against Coinbase's petition. This is over a year in the making. Essentially, they are going against Coinbase's view that:
"the Petition’s assertion that application of existing securities statutes and regulations to crypto asset securities, issuers of those securities, and intermediaries in the trading, settlement, and custody of those securities is unworkable
Coinbase has appealed and will be taking them to court. This will probably be the most important court case in crypto's history.
In my mind, when Ethereum held its ICO, it was probably security. IANAL but a brief look at the three prongs of the Howey test makes ETH sound like a security offering back then. BUT, Gensler I believe has said before that something can start out as a security and "become decentralized enough" to become a commodity. Don't quote me on that.
u/TheHansGruber has a staking node update
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18jkos4/daily_general_discussion_december_16_2023/kdm8ppg/)It's been about two and a half months since the holesky testnet re-launch, and all is quiet on the western front. My several thousand holesky validators are choochin' away with no significant hiccups. Running geth/lighthouse at the moment. Still haven't gotten around to setting a withdrawal address for them. For some reason I started having a difficult time picking up peers on this machine. Since launch I have been stable at 1round 15 peers, but over the last week that has dropped to 1-2 and sometimes 0 peers. Surprisingly, and this is more of a testament to the design of the network, my average effectiveness hardly dropped at all during this. I remained in the mid to high 80's.
I did do some changing of my network setup and for a few hours I had the holesky machine connected to both wifi and ethernet...I believe the machine had two IP addresses assigned to it and that may have caused some wires (or em waves?) to cross.
I decided to go ahead and forward the ports associated with the EL/CL applications, something I have not had to do with the rocketpool or solo machines. Both of those machines have 50+ peers running out of the box setups and nothing besides a static IP assigned to them. Anyway, running this setup overnight has brought the machine up to the max specified 50 peers and I foresee no other changes needing to be made as far as networking goes.
The other fun part about all this is that I have finally pulled the trigger on a nice little rackmount setup. Not necessary (by a longshot), but a lot of fun for a self-proclaimed computer enthusiast. Over the last couple years I have collected some rackmount equipment that I have come across for free/cheap. UPS' that are being tossed just needed a couple new batteries. Gigabit switches that just need a new SFP adapter, etc. Color coding the patch cables and swapping out USB/HDMI/ethernet keystones to make it all look neat and professional. I made a custom mount for a gas spring arm for a monitor on the back of it. There are these cool 1U flip up monitors you can buy that are like 700 quatloos ....yeah....nah....I'll use my free, collecting dust in a corner monitor instead. I have discovered that any normal computer component becomes 10x more expensive if it has "enterprise" or "rackmount" in the name.
I am trying to convince another local ISP that I am a business so they will install a fiber line directly to me. My understanding is that the install would be free, and the monthly cost would be more than what I am paying now, but not wholly unreasonable considering how much time and bandwidth I use. I have been close to picking up a dream machine pro because of the sale ubiquiti has had on it...apparently they never do discounts...but after perusing through the rest of their hardware if I fall down that rabbit hole it'll take eth breaking 100K before I can pay off the credit card bill. They've got some good lookin' hardware. That said...if I am a business, then that can all be written off...so less taxes...and there I go talking myself into it again. I'll stop now.
The nodeset machine is up and running as well, just waiting to be assigned. I am looking forward to that launch next year. There's a lot to look forward to, and a lot of good work being done combat the biggest threat to ethereum's credible neutrality. It should remain on everyone's mind that the priority needs to be the health of the network. Any entity that approaches 33% is a threat to credible neutrality. Doubly so for an entity that says out loud that they do not care and will continue to grow in an attempt to harm the network in pursuit of greater profit.
Just so everyone is clear: there is no debate about this. Let us keep fighting the good fight, less we lose the greatest value prop of ethereum.
I'll keep the staking machines running. Sip some coffee. Get my steps in. Enjoy the beginnings of the bull and patiently await new ATH's. Post here, and occasionally degen 100x some coins no one should touch with a ten foot pole. You know...for fun. Because if we don't remember to have fun doing all these frontier-of-the-internet shenanigans...what's the point?
u/stablecoin discusses the difference between high and low conviction investors
[View on Reddit →](https://reddit.com/r/ethfinance/comments/18kamvf/daily_general_discussion_december_17_2023/kdr5esz/)weak conviction endlessly follows price pumps, strong conviction requires years of building on ideas and integrating within the ecosystem to deliver on the promise of decentralized uncensorable monetary system that any entity can build on.
there's a difference and some of you don't seem to understand. for example is retail going to deposit directly into CRV pools or is retail going to use an app that pays their transaction and draws liquidity from the CRV pools in the background? stop worshiping retail pumps like they mean anything other than CT rotations and drummed up VC exit liquidity.
FTX estate recently announced they are giving people cash equivalent of crypto when Bitcoin was at 16K prices, and keeping the rest (ie spread between 16K and 42K). guess who also happens to have a lot of SOL to pay back the
