Tech
Solana’s Allure for Devs; Avalanche’s Big Upgrade
Published
3 months agoon
By
admin
Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Marc Hochstein, CoinDesk’s deputy editor-in-chief for features, opinion and standards.
In this issue:
- Solana was the biggest draw for new crypto developers in 2024
- No wonder: Solana’s transaction volume is off the charts
- Coinbase alums take next step toward no-code blockchain development
- Kraken’s ‘Ink’ layer-2 goes live
- Avalanche activates biggest-ever upgrade
- Ethereum’s ENS picks Consensys’ tech for its L2
- Bitcoin’s Stacks L2 gets an automated market maker for Runes
- Most Influential 2024: EigenLayer’s Sreeram Kannan
This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.
Network News
NEW DEVS SOLANA: The Solana ecosystem, ground zero for the memecoin craze, was the most popular blockchain among new developers this year, according to a report released last week by Electric Capital. In July, this community became the first since 2016 to bring on board more devs than Ethereum. Solana attracted 7,625 new developers in 2024, the most of any chain and a little over 1,000 more than Ethereum. The results underscore the challenge Ethereum faces as rival smart contract platform Solana’s low fees and fast transactions attract investment and talent. Read more.
SPEAKING OF SOLANA: Solana’s network activity has lit up as the Pudgy Penguins NFT project debuted its native token, PENGU, on the programmable blockchain. Solana registered a total transaction tally of 66.9 million Tuesday, the highest daily volume since its inception in 2020, according to data source Artemis. To highlight how busy it was, Solana’s transaction count eclipsed the total of all other major chains combined. Read more
THE INK IS DRY: Kraken, the seventh-largest crypto exchange, said its layer-2 rollup network, built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, has gone live. The network, called Ink, is Kraken’s answer to Base, the highly successful blockchain launched by rival exchange Coinbase. Like Base, Ink is based on the OP Stack, a customizable framework that lets developers build their own rollups using Optimism’s technology. The team had originally planned for Ink to go live in early 2025, so the launch of its main network is ahead of schedule. Read more
AVALANCHE UPGRADE: Avalanche, a layer-1 blockchain launched in 2020 that’s now the tenth-largest by total value locked (TVL), activated its highly anticipated Avalanche9000 upgrade Monday, marking the ecosystem’s biggest technical changes to date. The network has been prepping for these changes for months, with new features that will cut the costs for sending transactions, operating validators and building applications on the network. Leaders at Avalanche previously said that part of the goal with the upgrade is to attract developers to Avalanche and encourage them to create customized blockchains using its technology, known as subnets, or “L1s.” Read more.
A BOON FOR RUNES: Crypto degens have a new – and, if all goes according to plan, faster, cheaper and safer – way to trade Runes, the Bitcoin ecosystem’s answer to memecoins. An automated-market maker (AMM) for the Runes protocol went live on Wednesday on Stacks, following the unveiling of the layer-2 network’s native BTC-backed asset sBTC on Tuesday. It’s the first AMM for such tokens on Stacks. The teams behind decentralized exchange (DEX) Bitflow Finance and Bitcoin bridge Pontis developed the AMM. Runes launched in April and spurred a flurry of activity, paying 78.6 BTC ($8.18 million) in fees in the first 90 minutes. However, less than a month later, this excitement waned considerably, with fees dropping more than 50%. Bitflow’s aim is for its AMM to help Runes scale and address some of the shortcomings holding it back. Read more.
ENS PICKS L2 TECH: ENS Labs, the company behind the Ethereum Name Service, has picked Linea’s technology to build its upcoming layer-2 network, Namechain. Linea is a zero-knowledge rollup that came out in July 2023 and was built by Ethereum infrastructure giant Consensys. It is the seventh-largest rollup network, according to L2Beat, with $1 billion locked in its ecosystem. Rollups are a special type of blockchain where one can transact faster and at a lower cost. There are two kinds of rollups: optimistic and zero-knowledge. Optimistic rollups use optimistic proofs, which have a seven-day window to dispute transactions before they are finalized. Zero-knowledge rollups, by contrast, finalize proofs within minutes. ENS has been described as “the phone book for Web3,” but a more precise analogy is the web’s domain name service (DNS). The domain name “CoinDesk.com” is easier to remember and type than a numerical IP address. Similarly, ENS handles like parishilton.eth, which the namesake heiress acquired in 2021, are more relatable than the strings of letters and numbers that make up Ethereum wallet addresses. For this service, “we need fast finality,” said Nick Johnson, the founder and lead developer of ENS. That’s because “you want to be able to update your ENS name and have the chain reflect it in the smallest interval possible. And to do that and have it remain decentralized and secure, we need fast finality, and optimistic roll-ups can’t deliver that.” Read more.
NO CODE, NO PROBLEM? Patchwork, a startup focused on simplifying blockchain and smart-contract development founded by former Coinbase employees, has released the next version of its low-to-no-code tools for building decentralized applications (dapps). Currently linked to Coinbase’s Base and backed by Coinbase Ventures, the “Create-Patchwork” picks-and-shovels approach lowers the barriers to building blockchain applications and attaching data to them. Following the trend toward easily generated content, the complex world of blockchains and smart-contract design is on a path to no-code applications, or a “text-to-app” experience. Create-Patchwork is the first of several features the team plans to roll out in early 2025 and a foundational step to enable creators to generate contracts and applications in seconds using natural language inputs. “Patchwork is an Ethereum protocol that makes it really easy to build dynamic on-chain applications,” co-founder Kevin Day said in an interview. “It lets on-chain things own other on-chain things, and it allows anyone to attach programmable data to on-chain things.” Read more
EIGENLAYER’S SREERAM KANNAN: KING OF THE PROFESSOR COINS
For a crypto founder who’s attracted so much controversy, Sreeram Kannan is surprisingly sanguine.
In a wide-ranging interview after his selection as one of CoinDesk’s “Most Influential” figures in crypto for 2024, the EigenLayer founder was generous with his time, chatting more than an hour beyond our scheduled slot. I was surprised at his openness because the last time we spoke, a colleague and I had just published an investigation into potential conflicts of interest at his company, Eigen Labs, and in the interim Kannan had disavowed our reporting point-by-point on a Blockworks podcast.
This time, Kannan emerged in a different light. Whatever his misgivings about CoinDesk’s past coverage, they didn’t seem top-of-mind.
What emerged wasn’t the portrait of a defensive tech founder, but rather that of a driven, thoughtful academic-turned-entrepreneur still adjusting to a spotlight few in this industry ever enjoy. Instead of bitterness or evasion, I found ambition, reflection and a quiet kind of excitement.
Kannan seemed as astonished as anyone by how swiftly EigenLayer had transformed from a concept into one of crypto’s most talked-about experiments, telling CoinDesk that he continued to view EigenLayer as a “scrappy startup.”
Over the past 12 months, EigenLayer — which allows emerging blockchain applications to borrow Ethereum’s robust security — went from a relative unknown to an industry heavyweight. The platform raised more than $100 million from venture firms including Andreessen Horowitz and, before even fully launching, drew hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits from crypto users seeking extra yield. Many were incentivized by a viral points program that investors hoped would translate into a lucrative future token airdrop.
EigenLayer’s success during the bear market was striking, and Kannan may have played a larger role than any other entrepreneur in revitalizing decentralized finance on Ethereum. But not everything went according to plan. Industry critics took issue with the EIGEN token distribution plan — which locked up tokens for months and barred claimants from certain geographies — as well as the platform’s slower-than-expected feature rollout and concerns about “rehypothecation,” or the reuse of collateral for multiple purposes. In August, the CoinDesk investigation (that Kannan disputed in the podcast) raised questions about EigenLayer’s conflict-of-interest policies, which may have allowed employees preferential access to tokens powered by its platform.
None of this seemed to derail Kannan’s intellectual ascent. Beyond running Eigen Labs, he still holds a position as an affiliate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Washington, and his theory of “restaking” — letting people reuse staked Ethereum assets to secure other networks — has sparked a wave of innovation and copycats. He’s become a familiar face on the conference circuit, where he unpacks his vision of blockchains as tools for solving humanity’s endless “coordination problems.”
Blockchains, Kannan says, “are the biggest upgrade to human civilization since the U.S. Constitution.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL PROFILE BY COINDESK’S SAM KESSLER:
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Regulatory and policy
Calendar
- Jan 9-12, 2025: CES, Las Vegas
- Jan. 15-19: World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
- January 21-25: WAGMI conference, Miami.
- Jan. 24-25: Adopting Bitcoin, Cape Town, South Africa.
- Jan. 30-31: PLAN B Forum, San Salvador, El Salvador.
- Feb. 1-6: Satoshi Roundtable, Dubai
- Feb. 19-20, 2025: ConsensusHK, Hong Kong.
- Feb. 23-24: NFT Paris
- Feb 23-March 2: ETHDenver
- March 18-19: Digital Asset Summit, London
- May 14-16: Consensus, Toronto.
- May 27-29: Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas.
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Ethereum Developers Launch New Testnet for Pectra Upgrade After Earlier Setbacks
Published
3 days agoon
March 13, 2025By
admin
Following two problematic tests of Ethereum’s upcoming Pectra upgrade, the network’s core developers decided on Thursday to create a new testnet to demonstrate the code update a final time before deployment.
“A new testnet, Hooli, is going live Monday to wrap up Pectra testing,” said Tim Beiko, who coordinates the ecosystem’s core developers at the Ethereum Foundation, in an X post following a developer call on Thursday. Pectra will be tested on Hooli on Wednesday, March 26 — when the test chain will be upgraded to the new version of Ethereum and evaluated for performance and stability.
Pectra includes several code changes designed to make Ethereum faster, more efficient, and more user-friendly for both users and developers. One of the most significant improvements adds “smart contract” functionality to addresses, allowing user wallets to be programmed with new features, such as the ability to pay transaction fees in currencies other than ETH.
If the Hooli test succeeds, Beiko said developers will launch the upgrade after approximately 30 days, subject to further testing. Should everything proceed as planned, Ethereum users can expect Pectra to reach the ecosystem’s main network in late April or early May.
The Hooli testnet was created following complications with Pectra tests on Sepolia and Holesky, Ethereum’s primary test networks. In both instances, configuration errors prevented proper testing of the Pectra upgrade. In Holesky’s case, the network was offline for multiple weeks due to the flawed test issues.
Test networks like Holesky, Sepolia, and Hooli function almost identically to the main Ethereum network but are generally free to use and not intended to support real value. Major upgrades like Pectra are typically implemented on Ethereum’s test networks before full deployment on the mainnet, as any disruptions on the actual Ethereum network could be extremely costly.
According to Beiko, Sepolia and Holesky — which are now running Pectra successfully — serve different testing purposes. “If you need to test validator exits, be on the lookout for [Hooli]! Everything else can be tested on Sepolia & Holesky,” Beiko stated in his Thursday post on X.
Pectra’s technical setbacks come during a challenging period for Ethereum. The network has faced mounting pressure from declining ETH prices, leadership transitions at the Ethereum Foundation, and growing skepticism about its ability to maintain market dominance amid competition from newer blockchains like Solana. Industry figures view the successful implementation of Pectra as crucial for restoring confidence in Ethereum’s technical roadmap.
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Blockchain
Brazil’s Postal Service Seeks Blockchain, AI Solutions for Operations
Published
1 week agoon
March 9, 2025By
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Brazil’s state-owned postal service, Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telégrafos, has launched a pre-selection process for companies and specialists in blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop solutions for its logistics and operational management.
The tender, published in the country’s official journal Diário Oficial da União on Friday, seeks proposals that support the digital transformation of the agency’s services. The initiative, called Licitação Seleção Prévia e Diálogo nº 25000001/2025 CS, is focused on finding advanced technological solutions to modernize business processes, operations, and internal supply management.
“We want to promote a collaborative and dynamic process to find artificial intelligence and blockchain solutions for our business, operations, and hiring challenges,” the company announced.
The organization did not specify the exact use cases it is targeting, but blockchain technology has been widely adopted for supply chain tracking, document authentication, and transaction security. The use of artificial intelligence is likely linked to logistics optimization and enhanced data analysis.
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crypto hack
XRP Heist Worth $150M Related to LastPass Hack
Published
1 week agoon
March 8, 2025By
admin

A $150 million theft targeting Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen has been traced back to a security lapse involving the password manager LastPass, according to a forfeiture complaint filed by U.S. law enforcement on March 6 flagged by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT.
ZachXBT shared that the complaint detailed how Larsen’s private keys — or code to access one’s token holdings — were stored in LastPass, the widely used password manager that suffered a major breach in 2022.
At the time, hackers stole source code and technical data by compromising a developer’s account. By November of that year, they used this access to infiltrate a cloud storage system, stealing encrypted customer password vaults and unencrypted metadata for an estimated 25 million users.
Although ‘vaults’ were encrypted, weak or reused master passwords could be brute-forced, exposing stored data.
Hackers exploited this vulnerability, accessing Larsen’s keys and siphoning off the XRP, valued at $150 million at the time of the theft and over $600 million as of Saturday’s prices.
“A forfeiture complaint filed yesterday by US law enforcement revealed the cause for the ~$150M (283M XRP) hack of Ripple co-founder, Chris Larsen’s wallet in Jan 2024 was the result of storing private keys in LastPass (password manager which was hacked in 2022),” ZachXBT wrote on his Telegram channel.
“Up to this point Chris Larsen had not publicly disclosed the cause of the theft,” he added.
Larsen confirmed the incident in January, where he clarified the hack affected only his personal accounts, not Ripple’s corporate wallets. He is yet to publicly comment on the forfeiture notice.
The fallout from the 2022 LastPass hack has been extensive and remain ongoing. In December, The Security Alliance (SEAL), a team of cybersecurity experts focused on the crypto market, estimated that crypto losses connected to the breach had touched at least $250 million as of May 2024.
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