DeFi Dev News Weekly 12/18-22: PBS Foundation Grants, METIS $120M Ecosystem Fund, OpenZeppelin Defender 2.0

Grants and Accelerators 💰

• MetisDAO introduced a 4.6M METIS (~$120M) Ecosystem Development Fund (EDF). EDF distribution will be Q1 2024, going to sequencer mining, retroactive funding, deployment of new projects, and other endeavors.
  • Article | Apply via Metis Forum
• PBS Foundation is now accepting grant applications to protect the decentralization of the Ethereum consensus layer by advancing present and future research within the PBS protocol design philosophy. Proposer-builder separation (PBS) is a protocol design philosophy for the maintenance and operation of public blockchains first proposed by Vitalik Buterin in 2021.
  • Article & Forms

Hackathons 🧑‍💻

• Encode Club will launch a Solana hackathon with bounties and workshops. The hackathon will start on Jan 8th. The hackathon is sponsored by the Solana Foundation, Cadigo Platform, and Ironforge Cloud.
  • Application Form

Infrastructure 🏗

Ethereum

• Ethereum core devs agreed on a tentative date for the first testnet phase of the Dencun upgrade, and the meeting discussed pending issues with the upgrade. In particular, the developers discussed requirements for implementing “proto-danksharding,” a process that would enhance Ethereums data storage capacity by using “blobs.”
  • Thread

L2s

• Dymension introduces itself as a blockchain powering the Internet of RollApps. RollApps are easy-to-deploy modular blockchains. Dymension enables developers to deploy RollApps like tokens and use them like crypto servers.
  • Article | Docs | Website
• Eigen Layer and AltLayer introduce Restaked Rollups, a new category of EigenLayer AVS services that combine several of the services into a single bundle so that rollup users can benefit from a single-point integration while benefiting from several new features.
  • Article
• Eigen DA announces support for OP Stack on EigenDA testnet. Rollups will have the option of persisting L2 transaction data to EigenDA, enjoying negligible L1 gas costs while maintaining a security budget on par with Ethereum.
  • Article | Docs | Github
• Celo launches the Mezcal testnet, built using OP Stack and Celestia. The Mezcal CEL2 testnets are intended to be community tools for testing at scale before Celo’s migration to become an L2.
  • Website

L3s

• Hokum launches on mainnet. Hokum is the first OP Stack L3 blockchain built on Base with Celestia underneath. Hokum now has a 2048 app available for users to play to earn points.
  • Website

Data Availability (DA)

• Kinto L2 is integrating with Celestia DA. Celestia will significantly scale Kinto’s throughput and provide low transaction fees for end users while ensuring Kinto's ability to interoperate and onboard assets from Ethereum Mainnet. 
  • Article
• Avail works with the StarkWare team to build a DA interface to integrate Avail’s DA layer to Starknet appchains based on Madara. Developers may use the DA interface that Avail is building with the Madara sequencer to create low-cost, scalable, and validity-powered appchains on Starknet.
  • Article
• GameFi-focused L2 Alpha Dune is integrating Celestia DA to improve network performance and offer a rich set of features for gamers and developers.
  • Article

Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)

• Immutable launched “Passport” in playable games and marketplaces. Passport allows players to use identities and assets with a universal profile across multiple platforms.
  • Website

Security 🛡

• OpenZepplin released Defender 2.0, a mission-critical security & automation platform for blockchain applications. Defender’s Code Inspector allows devs to receive automatic vulnerability reports via GitHub, helping devs slash bugs quickly and efficiently.
  • Website | Docs
• pStake updated on an issue on Cosmos. The issue related to a potential stkToken protocol redemption rate discrepancy was fixed through a rolling upgrade of the Persistence appchain core-1 chain with a patch prepared by pSTAKE contributors and the suggested fix by the Immunefi white hat.
  • X Post

Tooling 🛠

Ethereum

• Twitter dev @pcaversaccio released CreateX, a factory contract to make easier & safer usage of the CREATE & CREATE2 EVM opcodes as well as of CREATE3-based (i.e. w/o an initcode factor) contract creations.
  • Github

Avalanche

• Ava Labs releases Teleporter, an EVM-compatible cross-subnet communication protocol built on top of Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM), and implemented as a Solidity smart contract. Developers can now [1]create a local Avalanche Warp-Enabled Devnet (Primary Network + 3 Subnets), [2] spin up an AWM-Relayer, and [3] deploy Teleporter with a SINGLE command:
  ./scripts/local/run.sh
  • Github

L2s

• Gelato announces the Gelato Rollup Deployment Platform (Gelato Rollup-as-a-Service). Gelato RaaS uses OP Stack and Polygon CDK with Celestia underneath with Etheruem-grade security and guaranteed uptime, offering no code rollup deployments.
  • Website
• Astria deploys Rollup-as-a-Service. Rollups deployed with the Astria RaaS use the shared sequencer network for block production, so they’re decentralized by default, inheriting censorship-resistant fast confirmations from Astria, with Celestia underneath for data availability.
  • Article | Form | Website
• Polygon is discontinuing support for Polygon Edge as it focuses support for Polygon CDK.
  • Article
• Aztec releases Noir Beta. Noir was created to solve the two-brain problem for ZK circuits. With Beta, an improved version of Noir Alpha, Noir is now significantly more stable, Hand-in-glove compatible with Aztec’s UltraPlonk proving back-end, and Browser compatible via NoirJS.
  • Article | Github
• Succinct Labs introduces Tendermint X, an open-source, performant ZK Tendermint light client for the EVM. Tendermint X brings to production connecting the Cosmos to Ethereum with a trust-minimized ZK bridge.
  • Article | Github

Gaming

• Thirdweb supports Unreal Engine, enabling game developers to build production-grade AAA games on-chain.
  • Website | Github

Research 🧑‍🔬

• Taiko's team published research on auctions and their application and significance in blockchain. The article explores types of auctions, what is an auction from the Auction Theory Perspective and the Mechanism Design Perspective, and EIP-1559 as a specific example.
  • Article
• Chronos One's team published a study that examines the effects of latency optimization on MEV capture and how proposers can earn higher rewards through timing games in the MEV-Boost auction. The article offers a top-level summary, highlighting all the key takeaways, observations, and results from the study.
  • Article

Bug Bounties 🐞

• Segment Finance is a decentralized lending and borrowing platform on the BNB and opBNB Chains, extending its functionalities beyond the framework of the initial Compound Protocol fork.
  • Bounty
• Smart Contract: 5,000-25,000
• Coreum's Superledger represents an architectural solution for enterprises aimed at resolving the prevailing limitations of existing blockchains.
  • Bounty
    • Blockchain: 1,000-25,000
    • Website: 1,000-10,000
• Daimo is an ERC-4337 wallet on Ethereum. Daimo is used to send and receive stablecoin payments. Assets are held in self-custody in a secure and UX-friendly way using device-bound (Secure Enclave or Android KeyStore) keys and Passkeys.
  • Bounty
    • Smart Contract: 5,000-15,000
    • Website: 1,000-10,000

Product Launches

• Built by Pomtent Network, Lumio is the first Move L2 that is EVM-compatible, built using the OP Stack, and settles on Ethereum while leveraging Move VM, Aptos’ virtual machine. Lumio is now on testnet and will open up in waves to a whitelist of users over time.
• ZKFair launches its mainnet. ZKFair is a community-owned ZK L2 build using Polygon CDK, Celestia DA, and Lumoz RaaS. ZKFair adopts a 100% fair launch approach, all ZKF tokens will be airdropped to the community.
• Aori V1 is live on Arbitrum. Aori is a high-frequency orderbook that allows “flash market making”, connecting CeFi/DeFi arbitrageurs to MEV searchers, solvers, and DeFi-native market makers.
• Gearbox V3 is live with PURE margin trading, new assets, and better organic rates. APYs depend on TVL migrated, and there is no new inflation in GEAR.
• ETH restaking protocol Renzo is live no EigenLayer. Renzo is the interface to the EigenLayer ecosystem securing Actively Validated Services (AVSs) and offering a higher yield than ETH staking.
• Web3 portfolio viewer vfat launches Yield, allowing users to compare yield products across DeFi, and enter and exit positions in one transaction.

DeFi Dev News is put together by Today in DeFi. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to support@todayindefi.com