Read in the Digest:
- Ethereum Developers Report “Almost” Bug-Free Ropsten Testnet Merge
- Optimism Loses 20 Million Tokens (OP) in Interlayer Confusion
- Yuga Labs Removes Code that Allows Creation of Infinite Bored Apes NFTs
- Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Cloud Launches Three New NFT Solutions for Creators
- South Korean Crypto Exchanges to Delist Litecoin (LTC) Following MimbleWimble Upgrade
Ethereum Developers Report “Almost” Bug-Free Ropsten Testnet Merge
In a historic event on Wednesday, June 8, Ropsten, Ethereum’s oldest test network, successfully completed its transition into proof of stake in the much-anticipated Merge event.
Ropsten hit the selected Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) of 50000000000000000 at 16:00 UTC and was subsequently merged. The merge saw Ropsten’s PoW codes combined with the codes of the PoS beacon chain.
Although there were minor issues with client node pairing, the Ethereum core developer, Parithosh Jayanthi, stated that the Ropsten merge or Ethereum’s (ETH) first dress rehearsal for the upcoming mainnet merge, was almost bug-free.
Ethereum developers are now monitoring PoS on the Ropsten chain to “make sure no client pairs go out of sync.” After that, two more chains, Goerli and Sepolia, will be merged in preparation for the final mainnet merge of Ethereum.
Flipsider:
- Contrary to investors’ expectations, the news has had minimal impact on the price of Ethereum, which has gained just 0.07% in the last 24 hours.
Why You Should Care
Ropsten’s merge is a series of tests put together to inform developers on future steps to ensure the smooth transition of the mainnet to PoS.
Optimism Loses 20 Million Tokens (OP) in Interlayer Confusion
Just one week after the airdrop of Optimism’s new token, the project announced the theft of 20 million tokens. The Ethereum scaling project accidentally sent the tokens to the wrong blockchain address.
In a statement, Optimism disclosed that the 20 million OP tokens were meant for a crypto market maker, Wintermute. However, they fell into the wrong hands when Wintermute provided Optimism’s team with an incorrect blockchain address.
The tokens were left hanging because they were sent from a Layer-2 address to a Layer-1 address. Before Wintermute could reclaim the fund, a hacker managed to redirect the entire 20 million OP to his address.
The CEO of Wintermute, Evgeny Gaevoy, took responsibility for allowing the theft stating that “we made a serious error.” Wintermute has now offered the hacker a job in exchange for the funds.
Flipsider:
- The hacker didn’t use the tokens to manipulate the Optimism governance system. Instead, they sent 1 million OP tokens to Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum.
Why You Should Care
The event shows how expensive a simple error when transferring funds on the blockchain can be.
Yuga Labs Removes Code that Allows Creation of Infinite Bored Apes NFTs
Yuga Labs has revoked the code that allows the minting of an infinite amount of Bored Ape Yacht Club nonfungible tokens (NFTs). This comes one year after the company first announced it was going to take it down.
In addition to potentially diluting the rarity of the BAYC collection, the code was also seen as a potential hack vulnerability, which hackers could have exploited to create new Bored Apes.
The code was revoked by EmperorTomatoKetchup, one of the co-founders of Yuga Labs. He wrote on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), “the contract owner has now been burned,” sharing the link to the transaction after revoking the codes.
Flipsider:
- Four days ago, the official Discord server of the Bored Ape was hacked for the second time this year. The hackers made away with users’ 200 ETH ($357,000) in NFTs.
Why You Should Care
Sealing the possibility of infinite Bored Apes will help preserve the rarity of the BAYC collection, one of the most valued today.
Alibaba Cloud Launches Three New NFT Solutions for Creators
Alibaba Cloud, China’s biggest cloud service provider, has launched three new NFT solutions to help creators easily monetize their NFT projects. It offers users all they need to build NFT-related products, from database and storage capacities to securing service.
Creators can easily use the first solution, a digital marketplace, to build and launch NFT marketplaces with high flexibility. Alibaba Cloud’s NFT solution also features a Digital Marketing Service allowing users to send SMS to customers across the globe.
The third solution is a Global Delivery Service, Alibaba Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Server Load Balancer (SLB). This is a high-performance NFT delivery service on Alibaba Cloud nodes, which supports up to 100,000 queries per second.
Alibaba Cloud’s NFT service works through a subscription system. Depending on the offering creators go for, the costs of these services range from $1 to as much as $26,826.00 per year.
Flipsider:
- The Chinese government has issued strong warnings about the dangers of trading in NFTs, and has completely outlawed crypto and mining.
Why You Should Care
The NFT solution from Alibaba Cloud offers a one-stop solution for creators looking to create NFT-related products.
South Korean Crypto Exchanges to Delist Litecoin (LTC) Following MimbleWimble Upgrade
Top cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea are delisting Litecoin (LTC) weeks after the release of the privacy-focused MimbleWimble (MWEB) upgrade that made LTC transactions private.
Bithumb and Upbit announced they would withdraw market support for LTC because the privacy features of MWEB are in conflict with South Korean anti-money laundering (AML) regulation.
On Wednesday, June 7, Upbit shared an update on South Korea’s Act on the Reporting and Use of Specific Financial Transaction Information, which prohibits anonymous transactions, and is the exchange’s key reason for ending support for LTC.
The move by Bithumb and Upbit to delist Litecoin (LTC) comes after Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax delisted the 20th largest crypto by market cap from their respective platforms.
Flipsider:
- Market analysts have predicted a huge Litecoin (LTC) sell-off in South Korea ignited by the delisting of crypto on major exchanges.
Why You Should Care
As more countries roll out regulatory frameworks, crypto projects need to adhere to them to operate in their respective regions.