The Cross-Chain Insider — LI.FI’s Weekly Cross-Chain Newsletter
Last Week In The Multi-Chain Ecosystem (14–20 March 2022)
Bridge Updates
1) LI.FI Smart Contract Vulnerability 🛠️
On March 20th, 2022, an attacker exploited LI.FI’s smart contract. $600k across 29 wallets were stolen due to the exploit. The bug with the smart contract has been fixed, and the solution has been deployed. The LI.FI team has reimbursed 27/29 wallets immediately and is in contact with the rest.
2) LayerZero is Now Live 👏🏻
LayerZero, a cross-chain protocol, is now live on Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, BNB Chain, Fantom, Arbitrum, and Optimism. The protocol launched its Stargate bridge and conducted a token sale for their $STG token.
3) LI.FI Launches Destination Swaps 🦎
LI.FI has introduced destination swaps powered by the Connext Bridge. Users now don’t need to switch the network on Metamask to complete transactions on select chains such as Avalanche, Polygon, Fantom, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Gnosis Chain, and BNB Chain.
4) Connext Bridge Integrates Clover Wallet 🎉
The Connext Bridge has integrated Clover wallet. Users can now access Connext bridge via their clover wallet.
5) Biconomy Announces Hyphen 2.0 🚀
Biconomy introduces Hyphen 2.0, which offers increased capital efficiency and lower cross-chain transfer fees. The team plans to add support for many new chains and tokens soon.
6) Connext Network Partners with Kava Network 🤝🏻
Kava is an L1 blockchain that combines the interoperability of Cosmos with the developer support of Ethereum. Connext Network will be bringing $37M+ in cross-chain liquidity to Kava with its trustless bridge.
7) Multichain Partners with Conflux Network 👏🏻
Multichain is working closely with Conflux Network to build co-mint architecture. The co-mint framework will allow bridges to mint/burn in the same asset contract to avoid naming collision and liquidity fragmentation.
Multi-Chain Ecosystem Updates
1) Kiln Testnet is Now Live 👏🏻
Kiln, the next iteration of Ethereum merge testnets is now live. It’s looking increasingly likely that we’re going to see the Merge in June.
2) QiDAO Launches MAI on Arbitrum 🥳
QiDAO, a cross-chain stable protocol, has launched MAI on Arbitrum. Users can now mint $MAI at 0% interest against $ETH.
3) Gnosis Chain Exploits 🛠️
Agave and Hundred Finance were exploited on Gnosis chain (formerly xDAI) on March 15, 2022. Because the official bridged tokens on Gnosis are non-standard and have a hook that calls the token receiver on every transfer, the attacker was able to exploit and attack reentrancy in both protocols.
4) Alchemix V2 is Now Live 🔥
Alchemix, a yield lending protocol, has launched V2, bringing more features and composability to the dApp. With V2, users can now access more collateral types and yield strategies on Alchemix.
5) Alpha Homora v2 is Now Live on Fantom 🚀
Alpha Finance Lab has launched Alpha Homora v2 on Fantom. Alpha Homora is a leveraged yield farming product. With v2, users can now earn yields from five available pools.
6) Aave V3 is Now Live 🤩
Aave has launched v3 on seven chains. V3 includes many features, mainly focusing on cross-chain operations and making Aave more efficient. Learn more about Aave V3 here.
7) Sushi Trident is Now Live on Polygon 👏🏻
Sushi has launched the beta of Trident, their new AMM framework on Polygon. Trident is a production framework for building and deploying AMMs. The framework will allow easy integration of any future AMM into Trident and the creation of dynamic liquidity types. Learn more about Trident here.
8) Anchor is Now Live on Avalanche 🚀
Terra’s Anchor protocol has been launched on Avalanche as xAnchor. This brings Anchor’s functionalities to other non-Terra blockchains, starting with Avalanche. The Anchor team also plans to expand to other major chains like Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, etc.
What’s Popping on Twitter?
Until recently, people seemed to have been sleeping on the Merge and its implications. However, with the Kiln testnet going live and a rallying effort by notable people in the industry to educate everyone about the Merge, a new narrative is forming in real-time.
If everything keeps progressing and there are no unforeseen issues, we’ll likely see the Merge in June as scheduled. That’s only three months away. This could be one of the most historical events in Crypto history. Today, we’d like to inform our readers why the event is so significant.
The Merge: What is it All About?
The Merge is the full transition of Ethereum away from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). A lot of the groundwork needed to execute the Merge successfully has already been done — the Beacon chain already exists, there’s already been a warm-up fork, and PoS already has light client friendliness. The Merge Mainnet Readiness Checklist is currently nearing completion, and with the Kiln testnet going live, the Merge seems imminent. Here’s a list of the significant changes post Merge:
- New ETH issuance is reduced by 90% — Ethereum will undergo a 90% cut of daily emissions from 12,000 $ETH a day to 1280 $ETH. The yearly $ETH inflation will decrease from 4.3% to 0.43%. This is the equivalent of three Bitcoin halvings.
- Increased rewards for PoS validators — Over 10.65M ETH staked in the Beacon Chain by 300k+ validators is currently earning 4.7% APR. These rewards will increase 2–3x to ~10–15% post merge.
- ETH goes green — ETH’s energy consumption will drop by 99.95%.
Contrary to what many people believe, the gas fees on the Ethereum Mainnet will not go down as a result of the Merge. In terms of gas fees, users can only find respite by using L2s that continue to grow and decentralize. If you want to bridge your funds to L2s, use LI.FI.
While the Merge is a significant and bullish event for the Crypto industry, there are also concerns being voiced by Ethereum devs about the direction the project is going in. In their opinion, Ethereum is not going in a ‘clean direction’ and is increasing the complexity of the blockchain network.
What are your views on the Merge? Will it help Ethereum become more efficient, or is it leading Ethereum to become a broken network by adding new features to an already complex blockchain?
Interesting Reads
1) LI.FI Review
2) Avalanche alpha
3) Polygon Overview
4) The 4 Misconceptions About Bridging
5) Deep Dive — DODO DEX
If you Liked What you Read
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Disclaimer: This newsletter is only meant for informational purposes. While many projects featured in the newsletter are our partners, we encourage you to do your own due diligence before using or buying tokens of any protocol mentioned above.
P.S. if you found the content to be useful, pls gib x50 claps 👏🏻
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