Forkless Chaos! - Newsletter Edition 88
In this week’s edition:
Editorial: Bye bye vibes, covering the chaos of this past week, and looking back at the chaos on Kusama.
Top Story - Rocky Rolls of Chaos!: ahead of ETHDenver, the week seems to be full of drama and chaos.
Featured Report - Rollback the Chaos!: we recap some of the chaos on Kusama.
Wag Roundup: News from our Finders Program between February 20th and February 26th.
Extras: Credits and anything else.
The full newsletter can be enjoyed via this link.
Editorial
What is up, my friends!
Pretty sure by now most of us know what hack happened, or can at least lazarus a guess on what went down. While we can commend the united actions of the crypto industry to make folks hole, the ~1.4B is no small gap. There also seems to be no intention of a rollback.
Some may have felt the markets reacted in the following week after the drama unfolded over the weekend, but a number of other factors are said to be at play. One thing is for sure, things might not be so safe anymore.
Meanwhile, over in the Polkadot ecosystem there was a different sign of chaos, more aimed at making it cypherpunk again. With some of the ecosystem faithful heading on to ETHDenver, a new funraising focused academy, and a bird-rising movement, we’ll provide you more insights on these in this week’s top story.
For our featured report, we’re going to look back through the Wag archives at our chaotic canary. As for the new WagMedia look, what do you think? Our teammate Skullz has not only been working his magic on our awesome newsletter cover art, but in the background, he’s been cooking up this visual change.
Fancy a change from reading to creating? Join us!
Dodow, Chief Editor
Top Story of the Week - Rocky Rolls of Chaos!
Written by yay.oi
What’s tradin’, CEXies? Never fear, your funds are safu. This week, a staggering $1.4 billion ETH went missing from Bybit, one of the world’s largest centralized exchanges. Not only is this the biggest crypto hack to date, but it may well be the largest financial breach ever.
Given the sheer volume of losses, some have called for a rollback of the Ethereum blockchain, which would require coordination across multiple stakeholders. After all, there’s a precedent for it. That idea, however, has been firmly rejected by core developer Tim Beiko.
While it’s true that Ethereum developers intervened to reverse the $50M exploit of The DAO in 2016, the decision caused a permanent rift in the community. Those unresolvable differences resulted in the forking of the blockchain into Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.
The Ethereum Classic camp was steadfast in upholding the principles of blockchain immutability and code is law. Over time, perhaps influenced by the unexpected contentiousness of The DAO solution, both sides seem to have reached a similar consensus that immutability is foundational to the integrity of the blockchain.
Though, when we’re talking about consensus on Ethereum, it doesn’t quite work like Polkadot’s on-chain consensus, which is backed by token-holders and delegations. As explained by Goku, changes on Ethereum are, for the most part, decided through the rough consensus of a tight-knit group of core developers.
To make Ethereum protocol changes, a fork is required, meaning that two instances of the blockchain operate until every node upgrades its software. If enough nodes refuse an upgrade, a permanent split can occur, like what happened with Ethereum Classic.
The Polkadot protocol, however, is designed for forkless upgrades. Its runtime is stored on-chain with upgrades deployed by governance. This can offerimproved response time and flexibility for addressing security threats. An example of this can be seen in the ongoing proposals to regain control of the Parallel Finance parachain from its attacker................…….
Check out our full newsletter for the full story
Featured Report - Rollback the Chaos!
Written by Dodow
On 21st February, Bill Laboon, on behalf of the Web3 Foundation, tabled a referendum on the Wish For Change track to usher in a new vision for Kusama. Referendum 498 seeks approval from the community to secure 10M DOT from the W3F treasury to effectively transition Kusama from merely being a Canary Network.
The use case as a standalone Canary Network has served Polkadot well as a testing ground with real economics. With Polkadot Cloud and Hub shaping up, and the future of JAM on the horizon, it might be time to raise the bird like a phoenix from the ashes.
While the proposal (at the time of writing) and its vision are yet to be determined, we can take this opportunity to reflect on Kusama’s accomplishments. With help from the WagMedia archives, let’s look back at some of the highlights.
Kusama has always had the cypherpunk vibe, bonding wild and experimental thinkers together. Anyone recall the Kusamaverse? In fact, under some sleeves, there’s even a hidden society of sorts. As a star OG wagger, Pitcoin explains, Kappa Sigma Mu were long among the first to embrace the responsibility that comes with Proof of Ink.
Pitcoin also explains the distinction between test network and experimental network. He points out that, as Gav expressed, do we seriously want two Polkadots? Sure, the codebase is the same, but when you compare them side by side, you start to sense a different proposition.
Tracking down another OG wagger, Cris Pap also expresses a similar sentiment and goes on X to explain how DOT needs KSM (note: this was appreciated through the early Polka Häus treasury partnership). Back then, we expected chaos as well as love.
As with the original Polkadot concept, Kusama centres around the relay chain, which primary purpose is to secure the network..........……...
Wag Roundup
Written by yay.oi
On February 25th, Grayscale filed an application with the SEC to list a spot DOT ETF on the Nasdaq exchange.
Polkadot co-founder Rob Habermeier has released the v1.0 preview of NOMT, an upcoming scaling solution for blockchain nodes that enhances throughput and interoperability, yet runs on inexpensive consumer-grade hardware.
The Polimec x Scytale Academy kicks off on April 7th and is now taking applications. Successful applicants will receive training and mentoring to help their project achieve investment readiness. Projects will be eligible for funding of up to $250K from Scytale and potential additional funding from a Polimec fundraise.
The Web3 Foundation has launched the Polkadot x ERA Global Program, an accelerator program that aims to help projects break into the US market. Kylix, Apillon, Staex, and Zeitgeist have been selected to join the first cohort.
Payments on the privacy-focused XHYPE travel and gift-card marketplaces can now be made with Asset Hub DOT and USDT through SubWallet, thanks to the efforts of the IberLab BD Team.
The Evrloot Auction House is live, bringing order book features and price discovery to the in-game marketplace. To celebrate, every trader in week one will receive a rare Trader’s Necklace, with the top three traders sharing a prize pool of USDC $1000.
Kusama has arrived on Hydration! It is now possible to bridge and swap KSM in the Omnipool.
You can now bridge vTokens, BNC, and DOT from Bifrost to Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, and BNB via the Hyperbridge integration.
Bill Laboon has initiated a Kusama Wish for Change proposal to fulfil Gavin Wood’s promise to grant 10M DOT from the token genesis pool to incentivize network participation. It is proposed that the funds could be used to transition Kusama from a canary network into an experiment-centric peer network with a focus on ZK technology.
Polkadot hosted Richard and Pakman (Xcavate) on February 20th to discuss how their decentralized modular protocol is leading the way for the tokenization of real estate.
Extras
Awesome cover art created by SKULLZ.
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