Curated by Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) and Eric Conner (@econoar)

🤔 Marketing Ethereum

There was quite a bit of discussion around “Ethereum marketing” on Twitter this week with many people chiming in with their views. In general, I think that people associate marketing crypto with Justin Sun style pumping/hyping/shilling which is definitely not what I view marketing as. I put a little thread together here that goes over my views.

Eric and I will be expanding on these views on the weekly recap episode of our podcast this week. Be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss it!

Have a great week everyone!

- Anthony

News of the Week

Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on Thursday.

Griffith was arrested in November on allegations he spoke at a cryptocurrency conference in North Korea last year, where he allegedly taught his audience how to use cryptos to evade sanctions. A complaint published by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York claimed Griffith detailed how crypto could be used to launder money, and may even have tried to facilitate a transaction between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and South Korea.

A grand jury indicted him earlier this month, and Griffith was released on bail.

Griffith’s attorney, Brian Klein, said in a statement that Griffith “should not have been indicted.”

“We are going to vigorously contest the charge and look forward to getting all the facts in front of the jury at trial,” he said at the time. If convicted, Griffith would face a maximum of 20 years in jail.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Heath Tarbert remarked Thursday that the crypto market could see the launch of Ether (ETH)-based futures contracts.

“We have seen bitcoin futures, both cash-settled as well as physically-delivered. My guess is we are going to see Ether futures as well,” Tarbert told Bloomberg in an interview on Thursday.

The chairman first discussed ether futures in October, when he said he “absolutely” believes the futures tied to the Ethereum-based token could trade in the next six to 12 months.

Tarbert further said in Thursday's interview that he wants the U.S. "to lead" in the advancement of blockchain technology and digital assets.

“I want to encourage innovation and it's interesting because commodities are what we regulate, particularly derivatives on commodities,” he remarked.

In what's being called a first for Switzerland, a company has been allowed to incorporate for an initial public offering (IPO) of tokenized shares on a blockchain (in this case, Ethereum).

In a press release Wednesday, the firm's adviser, Andriotto Financial Services, said Coldrerio, Switzerland-based OverFuture SA's articles of incorporation directly reference "the digital nature of the shares (tokens) and the use of the blockchain as the technology to keep the shareholders registry."

The firm's IPO prospectus indicates an offering of 8,399,000 "common equity share security tokens" on the ethereum blockchain, with smart contracts provided by with EURO DAXX, a digital assets exchange based in the country's "Crypto Valley" city of Zug. The offering price will be €1.25 ($1.38) per share.

Project Updates

This update fixes an unexploited bug in the ENS registry contract and adds new functionality to ENS including the ability to:

Configure the owner and resolver of a name in a single transaction

Create a subdomain and set a resolver for it in a single transaction

Authorize contracts or other accounts to make changes to domains (change their resolver and owner) on their behalf, similar to ERC721’s ‘authorization’ functionality

The Aztec privacy network can now be used by developers to incorporate zkDai into their dapps. zkDai is a confidential version of Dai which hides the amounts being transacted between Ethereum accounts.

New fork choice algorithm, 10x faster and more stable syncing, 32x database storage reduction and much more in this update.

Another large eth2 update from the PryLabs team. The highlight? More than double the validators expected at mainnet launch already running in the testnet! The team also significantly improved the eth2 testnet block sync time - going from 0.2 blocks per second to over 20 blocks per second in just 2 weeks!

Stablecoin Services is a website offering a collection of common Dai and Chai operations, gas-free! You can transfer Dai or Chai, sell Dai > Eth, Chai > Eth on Uniswap, convert Dai <> Chai - all without holding any Ether!

Maple Loans is a platform where users form Communities to borrow and lend undercollateralized loans to other Community members. The protocol takes care of requesting, funding, settling and making repayments allowing Communities to experiment and be creative with identity and risk assessment.

This new knowledge base currently includes a glossary of terms for eth2 - ever wondered what epoch, validator, attestations and all the other buzzwords mean? Simply go to the site to find all of the definitions!

Over 25 oracle networks are now live on the Ethereum mainnet tracking the price of tokens such as SNX, LEND and LRC.

The partnership focuses on building the next-gen asset management infrastructure which tweaks some of the traditional relationships between the actors in the asset management industry, as we know them today, and the role of custody.

You can now gain exposure to the Dai Savings Rate with a few clicks by simply using the Argent mobile wallet app.

The 0x API is designed to make it easy for DeFi developers to tap into both off-chain and on-chain DEX liquidity in a fast, reliable, and easy to use way.

The second property on RealT, 5942 Audubon, has been sold and has 153 unique owners!

TokenSoft’s new investment accounts offer a brokerage-style experience for investors who trade security tokens.

Community Member Spotlight

This week we’re highlighting the great work of Kain Warwick!

Kain is the founder of Ethereum-based decentralized synthetic asset platform - Synthetix. As most of you probably already know, Synthetix has seen incredible growth over the last few months in both network usage and price appreciation for SNX.

Kain is also the CEO of blueshyft - an app that allows retailers across Australia to accept cash payments for digital goods & services.

Keep up the great work Kain!

Interesting Tweets

Ecosystem Bits

Blog Posts

Podcasts

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Misc

Meme of the Week

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