Forwarded from crab notes 🦀 lobsterdao
Blockchain Lobsters @ivangbi_diary and Klim for @Crypto_ELI5 - with Brenna Sparks 😍
ledger vs trezor
ledger and trezor are now playing a marketing game by listing hundreds of tokens among the supported currencies. both lists are 700+ items long which makes them hardly usable. if you exclude the tokens, you'll get 54 coins supported on ledger and 43 on trezor. most of them intersect, but some of the coins are supported only on one device.
unique for ledger:
akroma, ark, eos, fic network, growchain, hcash, hycon, icon, komodo, kowala, lisk, nano, neo, nimiq, ontology, poa network, particl, peeercoin, pirl, pivx, posw, qtum, rise, stealth, stellar, stratis, tezos, tron, vechain, wanchain, waves, woleet
unique for trezor:
bitcore, cardano, crown, decred, denarius, eos classic, ellaism, ethergem, ethereumsocial, feathercoin, flashcoin, fujicoin, groestlcoin, koto, mue, monacoin, myriad, namecoin, pesetacoin, terracoin
ledger and trezor are now playing a marketing game by listing hundreds of tokens among the supported currencies. both lists are 700+ items long which makes them hardly usable. if you exclude the tokens, you'll get 54 coins supported on ledger and 43 on trezor. most of them intersect, but some of the coins are supported only on one device.
unique for ledger:
akroma, ark, eos, fic network, growchain, hcash, hycon, icon, komodo, kowala, lisk, nano, neo, nimiq, ontology, poa network, particl, peeercoin, pirl, pivx, posw, qtum, rise, stealth, stellar, stratis, tezos, tron, vechain, wanchain, waves, woleet
unique for trezor:
bitcore, cardano, crown, decred, denarius, eos classic, ellaism, ethergem, ethereumsocial, feathercoin, flashcoin, fujicoin, groestlcoin, koto, mue, monacoin, myriad, namecoin, pesetacoin, terracoin
tezos mainnet
tezos betanet testing is going on smoothly so it will transition to mainnet on monday, september 17th. all transactions will persist as was previously decided.
https://twitter.com/TezosFoundation/status/1040640714424508416
tezos betanet testing is going on smoothly so it will transition to mainnet on monday, september 17th. all transactions will persist as was previously decided.
https://twitter.com/TezosFoundation/status/1040640714424508416
bitcoin denial-of-service vulnerability
bitcoin core v0.14.0 introduced a bug that allows a miner to crash all connected nodes by creating a block that contains a transaction with a duplicate input. such block would be invalid so it means losing at least 12.5 btc an attack.
the problem is fixed in version 0.16.3 of bitcoin core client. if you are running a full node, it's time to upgrade. bitcoin forks are also affected by this vulnerability, with litecoin being the first to adopt the upstream patches.
bitcoin core v0.14.0 introduced a bug that allows a miner to crash all connected nodes by creating a block that contains a transaction with a duplicate input. such block would be invalid so it means losing at least 12.5 btc an attack.
the problem is fixed in version 0.16.3 of bitcoin core client. if you are running a full node, it's time to upgrade. bitcoin forks are also affected by this vulnerability, with litecoin being the first to adopt the upstream patches.
Bitcoin Core
Download - Bitcoin
scaling ethereum to 500 tx/sec on-chain
vitalik buterin suggested to use zk-snarks to mass validate transactions. by packing addresses and balances+nonces into two merkle trees, it's possible to batch validate transactions with a single zero-knowledge proof.
even though zk-snark verification costs 6 million gas in current implementation, this technique results in 892 gas per transaction which is 24x improvement for regular transactions and about 50x cheaper for erc-20 token transfers.
https://ethresear.ch/t/on-chain-scaling-to-potentially-500-tx-sec-through-mass-tx-validation/3477
vitalik buterin suggested to use zk-snarks to mass validate transactions. by packing addresses and balances+nonces into two merkle trees, it's possible to batch validate transactions with a single zero-knowledge proof.
even though zk-snark verification costs 6 million gas in current implementation, this technique results in 892 gas per transaction which is 24x improvement for regular transactions and about 50x cheaper for erc-20 token transfers.
https://ethresear.ch/t/on-chain-scaling-to-potentially-500-tx-sec-through-mass-tx-validation/3477
plasma by matter
plasma implementation has happened. matter team has announced that their implemenation of ethereum scaling solution is ready for production release. the research team is lead by ex-bankex employees who were one of the first to implement plasma.
this implementation works at 25,000 transactions per second which is 1500x faster than the underlying chain while providing the same level of security. future release will also include confidential transactions, a feature missing on the ethereum mainnet.
https://thematter.io/
plasma implementation has happened. matter team has announced that their implemenation of ethereum scaling solution is ready for production release. the research team is lead by ex-bankex employees who were one of the first to implement plasma.
this implementation works at 25,000 transactions per second which is 1500x faster than the underlying chain while providing the same level of security. future release will also include confidential transactions, a feature missing on the ethereum mainnet.
https://thematter.io/
metamask adds ledger support
last month metamask added support for trezor hardware wallet. today it adds support for ledger. now you can securely use any dapp with hardware wallets even if they don't support them directly.
https://medium.com/metamask/metamask-now-supports-ledger-hardware-wallets-847f4d51546
last month metamask added support for trezor hardware wallet. today it adds support for ledger. now you can securely use any dapp with hardware wallets even if they don't support them directly.
https://medium.com/metamask/metamask-now-supports-ledger-hardware-wallets-847f4d51546
wavelet consensus
kenta iwasaki from perlin has unveiled wavelet, a practical variant of avalanche consensus that improves on the shortcomings of the original research paper. the article gives a very clear overview of how avalanche handles conflicts and how it pre-flights and accepts transactions. then it addresses some missing pieces like sybil resistance, secure bootstapping, synchronizing graphs between peers and total ordering of transactions, which is required for implementing smart contracts.
https://medium.com/perlin-network/wavelet-a-metastable-sybil-resistant-ledger-517ea7ee9031
kenta iwasaki from perlin has unveiled wavelet, a practical variant of avalanche consensus that improves on the shortcomings of the original research paper. the article gives a very clear overview of how avalanche handles conflicts and how it pre-flights and accepts transactions. then it addresses some missing pieces like sybil resistance, secure bootstapping, synchronizing graphs between peers and total ordering of transactions, which is required for implementing smart contracts.
https://medium.com/perlin-network/wavelet-a-metastable-sybil-resistant-ledger-517ea7ee9031
when segwit
this is an open letter to the bitcoin community about speeding up the segwit adoption. currently only 40% of transactions utilize segwit so there is a lot of room for optimization. an incentive that could drive the adoption forward is the new backwards-incompatible address format called bech32.
today most segwit transactions are wrapped into legacy p2sh (pay to script hash) addresses starting with "3". this hack allows the recipient to utilize segwit even if the sender doesn't support it.
bech32 addresses, on the other hand, require both parties to upgrade. the new address format starts with "bc1" and looks slightly different, addresses are a bit longer and lowercase instead of mixed case.
brd will add opt-in segwit-only receive addresses in october 2018 and plans to get as many companies on board with the initiative.
https://whensegwit.com
this is an open letter to the bitcoin community about speeding up the segwit adoption. currently only 40% of transactions utilize segwit so there is a lot of room for optimization. an incentive that could drive the adoption forward is the new backwards-incompatible address format called bech32.
today most segwit transactions are wrapped into legacy p2sh (pay to script hash) addresses starting with "3". this hack allows the recipient to utilize segwit even if the sender doesn't support it.
bech32 addresses, on the other hand, require both parties to upgrade. the new address format starts with "bc1" and looks slightly different, addresses are a bit longer and lowercase instead of mixed case.
brd will add opt-in segwit-only receive addresses in october 2018 and plans to get as many companies on board with the initiative.
https://whensegwit.com
storage distribution in highly optimized turbo geth ethereum archive node
stablecoins
three new dollar-backed stablecoins were launched recently: gemini dollar, paxos and circle's usd//c. all three of them have something in common. and i'm not talking about the
these contracts are built with upgradability in mind. they use a pattern that evolved from eternal storage to what is now called proxy in zeppelin os. basically it decouples storage from logic implementation so you can replace it without losing all the balances data and whatnot.
to interact with such contracts you need to call the proxy using the interface (abi) of the implementation. i'll show an example with usdc. take a quick look at proxy and implemenation contracts. if you interact with them using "read contract" tab on etherscan, you'll see nothing for the first one and all the views but no values for the second contract. the actual values can be uncovered using tools like web3 as shown below.
you can read more about these design decisions in the blog post below.
https://medium.com/centre-blog/designing-an-upgradeable-ethereum-contract-3d850f637794
three new dollar-backed stablecoins were launched recently: gemini dollar, paxos and circle's usd//c. all three of them have something in common. and i'm not talking about the
lawEnforcementRole that allows to freeze and nuke any account.these contracts are built with upgradability in mind. they use a pattern that evolved from eternal storage to what is now called proxy in zeppelin os. basically it decouples storage from logic implementation so you can replace it without losing all the balances data and whatnot.
to interact with such contracts you need to call the proxy using the interface (abi) of the implementation. i'll show an example with usdc. take a quick look at proxy and implemenation contracts. if you interact with them using "read contract" tab on etherscan, you'll see nothing for the first one and all the views but no values for the second contract. the actual values can be uncovered using tools like web3 as shown below.
you can read more about these design decisions in the blog post below.
https://medium.com/centre-blog/designing-an-upgradeable-ethereum-contract-3d850f637794
mimblewimble update
i last wrote about mimblewimble about a year ago, so i'll quickly reiterate first. mimblewimble is a privacy coin first introduced in a pseudonymous whitepaper in may 2016. i suggest reading this bitcoin magazine article to get the idea of how mimblewimble improves on bitcoin. unlike zcash, mimblewimble doesn't require a trusted setup and all transaction are private instead of privacy being opt-in. this update is split in two posts for ease of sharing.
i last wrote about mimblewimble about a year ago, so i'll quickly reiterate first. mimblewimble is a privacy coin first introduced in a pseudonymous whitepaper in may 2016. i suggest reading this bitcoin magazine article to get the idea of how mimblewimble improves on bitcoin. unlike zcash, mimblewimble doesn't require a trusted setup and all transaction are private instead of privacy being opt-in. this update is split in two posts for ease of sharing.
grin
the first effort to implement mimblewimble protocol started in november 2016 under the name grin. the initial code was posted on irc by ignotus peverell who is still the most active grin contributor. this implementation is written in rust with most core features already implemented. grin is currently at testnet3 with one more testnet planned before launch.
besides the very impressive core protocol, here are some interesting features that are already working in grin:
- cuckoo cycle mining.
- schnorr signatures, also called aggregate signatures, paving the way to scriptless scripts and smart contracts.
- dandelion, which makes initial sender ip more difficult to track. all transactions wander a little across network before getting broadcasted.
- bulletproofs, which allow for confidential transactions with much smaller zero-knowledge proofs and require no trusted setup.
- flyclient, a super light client which syncs the merkle root of all previous block headers instead of references to the previous block. it allows to check the inclusion of any previous block by just storing the head.
- atomic swaps, the first being done against ethereum.
grin decided not to engage in ico and doesn't accept any money other than donations. the project has recently raised about $57k to fund a full-time developer till february 2019.
grin-tech.org
https://github.com/mimblewimble/grin
the first effort to implement mimblewimble protocol started in november 2016 under the name grin. the initial code was posted on irc by ignotus peverell who is still the most active grin contributor. this implementation is written in rust with most core features already implemented. grin is currently at testnet3 with one more testnet planned before launch.
besides the very impressive core protocol, here are some interesting features that are already working in grin:
- cuckoo cycle mining.
- schnorr signatures, also called aggregate signatures, paving the way to scriptless scripts and smart contracts.
- dandelion, which makes initial sender ip more difficult to track. all transactions wander a little across network before getting broadcasted.
- bulletproofs, which allow for confidential transactions with much smaller zero-knowledge proofs and require no trusted setup.
- flyclient, a super light client which syncs the merkle root of all previous block headers instead of references to the previous block. it allows to check the inclusion of any previous block by just storing the head.
- atomic swaps, the first being done against ethereum.
grin decided not to engage in ico and doesn't accept any money other than donations. the project has recently raised about $57k to fund a full-time developer till february 2019.
grin-tech.org
https://github.com/mimblewimble/grin
beam
the story of mimblewimbe doesn't end here. there is another implementation which started in april 2018 called beam. it's is written from scratch in c++. desipte being only 6 month in development, beam has already launched a testnet (with a graphical wallet!) and the team is on track to launch the network in december 2018, probably earlier than grin.
unlike grin, which has infinite inflation, beam has a finite supply with periodic reward halving. similar to zcash, there is founder's reward with 20% of the mined coins sent into developer treasury for the first 5 years. selling some of the treasury has allowed beam to fund a larger development team.
in addition to the features outlined above, some interesting parts of beam include:
- equihash mining.
- further improvements on dandelion with transaction merging during the stem phase.
- batch bulletproofs.
- super lightweight flyclient implementation.
- secure bbs, which drops the requirement for sender and receiver to be online at the same time.
- auditable wallet, with ability to issue one or more audit keys for third parties.
- graphical and mobile wallets, all acting as full nodes. integration with hardware wallets.
- atomic swaps with bitcoin via p2p exchange within the wallet.
@beamprivacy
beam-mw.com
the story of mimblewimbe doesn't end here. there is another implementation which started in april 2018 called beam. it's is written from scratch in c++. desipte being only 6 month in development, beam has already launched a testnet (with a graphical wallet!) and the team is on track to launch the network in december 2018, probably earlier than grin.
unlike grin, which has infinite inflation, beam has a finite supply with periodic reward halving. similar to zcash, there is founder's reward with 20% of the mined coins sent into developer treasury for the first 5 years. selling some of the treasury has allowed beam to fund a larger development team.
in addition to the features outlined above, some interesting parts of beam include:
- equihash mining.
- further improvements on dandelion with transaction merging during the stem phase.
- batch bulletproofs.
- super lightweight flyclient implementation.
- secure bbs, which drops the requirement for sender and receiver to be online at the same time.
- auditable wallet, with ability to issue one or more audit keys for third parties.
- graphical and mobile wallets, all acting as full nodes. integration with hardware wallets.
- atomic swaps with bitcoin via p2p exchange within the wallet.
@beamprivacy
beam-mw.com
battle of the privacycoins
bitcoin magazine has published an amazing series about different privacy-oriented coins.
- bitcoin as a privacycoin
- why dash is not really that private
- why monero is hard to bead (and hard to scale)
- verge offers little privacy and nothing unique
- zcash is groundbreaking (if you trust it)
- what we know about grin and beam's mimblewimble
bitcoin magazine has published an amazing series about different privacy-oriented coins.
- bitcoin as a privacycoin
- why dash is not really that private
- why monero is hard to bead (and hard to scale)
- verge offers little privacy and nothing unique
- zcash is groundbreaking (if you trust it)
- what we know about grin and beam's mimblewimble