How Does Merlin Chain Work ?

Now, let’s take a look at how Merlin Chain operates.
Merlin Chain scales Bitcoin through zkEVM, an EVM-compatible scaling solution that uses zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to prove the validity of state changes resulting from “rolling up” and processing transactions. These proofs are created by sequencer nodes, the operators of Merlin Chain’s ZK-rollup.

Besides generating proofs, sequencer nodes are also responsible for bundling a large number of transactions into a smaller, compressed block of data. They then send the batched transaction data and the zero-knowledge proofs to the Bitcoin base layer through an oracle network. All Merlin Chain transactions settle on the base layer, making them immutable, secure, and decentralized.

Merlin Chain’s oracle network consists of nodes that act as a Data Availability Committee (DAC). Their job is to confirm the handling of the transaction data they receive from the sequencer nodes.

That means Merlin Chain requires oracle network nodes to always remain honest. To achieve this, oracle network nodes must stake BTC to participate in the Layer 2 network. Users can challenge the validity of ZK proofs and batched data. If the challenge is successful, the oracle network node that confirmed that round of transactions is penalized for submitting invalid transaction data. The penalty includes losing a fraction of their staked BTC.

ZK-rollups reduce transaction costs by compressing transaction data, which takes up less block space. Also, Merlin Chain speeds up transactions with an average block time of about 1.2 seconds, which is way faster than Bitcoin's ten-minute block time.

#NekoNews @OriNeko

⚡️ About $940M of Positions Liquidated As Bitcoin Dips Below $66K

Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin has fell by nearly 5%, followed by other cryptocurrencies. The lowest price was just under $65K, while Ethereum reached $3.1K at some point.

Amid the decline, nearly $940 million of positions were liquidated on the leading futures exchanges:

- $398M on Binance;
- $320M on OKX;
- $105M on HTX;
- $63M on Bybit;
- $15M on BitMEX.

Liquidations of long positions significantly outpaced liquidations of long positions:
🟢 $825M (88% Long)
🔴 $113M (12% Short)

#NekoNews @OriNeko

Okay, so according to the voting results, the majority choose Metis, in the next post I will explain about the Metis.

What is Metis?

Metis Andromeda is Ethereum’s Layer-2 (L2) roll-up protocol that offers simple and fast smart contract deployment to a network. It seeks to address the blockchain trilemma– the challenge of simultaneously achieving decentralization, security, and scalability.

Metis aims to help developers improve existing decentralized applications (dApps). In addition, they also provide support for developers who want to develop and introduce new dApps.

This is done by integrating the Decentralized Autonomous Company (DAC) framework in the Layer-2 infrastructure. This will ease the transition for developers and businesses to move from the Web 2.0 ecosystem to the Web 3.0 ecosystem.

#NekoSpotlight @OriNeko

How Does Metis Work?

Metis Andromeda is an L2 with optimistic rollup technology. It rolls up a batch of transactions into one on L2 and sends it back to L1 (Ethereum). However, Metis’ rollup model has a unique hybrid setup. It allows Metis to reduce fees while maintaining fast confirmation times significantly.

One factor that makes this possible is using InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a decentralized storage space with peer-to-peer architecture. So, instead of storing and processing data off-chain in a centralized location, Metis stores it spread across various nodes in the IPFS network.

In this way, data processing can be more effective while minimizing the risk of data loss or being hacked. Combined with rollup technology, Metis can reduce transaction fees to 100x lower than the Ethereum Mainnet, making it the lowest-cost L2 network on Ethereum.

Unlike other L2 platforms with EVM-compatible processing engines, Metis’ engine -Metis Virtual Machine- is EVM-equivalent. This is an advantage of Metis because MVM is better than EVM-compatible.

Regarding security, structure, and programming language (Solidity), MVM is equivalent to EVM. Thus, the development team can easily deploy native Ethereum applications to Metis with slight programming code modification.

#NekoSpotlight @OriNeko

Conclusion

Metis Andromeda is the lowest-fee Layer-2 roll-up protocol on Ethereum. Thanks to implementing optimistic roll-up technology and IPFS, Metis can reduce transaction fees up to 100x lower than Ethereum. In addition to scalability solutions through roll-up technology, Metis has features such as Decentralized Autonomous Company (DAC), Metis Bridge, and MVM, an EVM-equivalent engine.

Metis’ native token, METIS, is used for transaction fees and staking. METIS has a maximum supply of 10 million tokens. Committed to growing its ecosystem adoption, Metis has announced a token distribution similar to the successful Avalanche incentive program.

#NekoSpotlight @OriNeko

Top 7 Token Unlocks of the Upcoming Week

The following tokens with the largest unlock amount will be unlocked next week:

Axie Infinity - $115.32M
Arbitrum - $103.82M
StarkNet - $90.09M
Immutable - $71.69M
Sei - $65.90M
Uniswap - $62.83M
Manta Network - $60.05M

@OriNeko

Bitcoin recently dropped from $71k to $61K.

If the correction persists, keep an eye on key metrics like traders' unrealized profit margins and the realized price.

These have signaled weakness since late March.

#NekoNews @OriNeko

PAXG hit new high on Middle East tensions, raising questions about Bitcoin

A gold-backed digital asset from Paxos spiked to an all-time high over the weekend amid a backdrop of rising tensions in the Middle East, leading to some questioning Bitcoin's value as a geopolitical hedge. The PAXG gold-backed crypto token hit $2,855 on April 13 as Bitcoin prices conversely tanked $5,000 in a matter of hours from over $67,500 to bottom out at around $62,700 in a 7.5% daily rout, according to data from CoinGecko.

The PAXG token could not sustain momentum, however, and retreated to its previous spot gold-linked price level of around $2,376 at the time of writing.The asset has made slow and steady progress since the beginning of March, rising 20% in tandem with prices of the underlying precious yellow metal, which hit a peak of $2,400 per ounce last week.

#NekoNews @OriNeko

German Banks Welcome Crypto Custody

Germany's largest federal bank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), has partnered with crypto exchange Bitpanda to provide cryptocurrency custody services. This move comes in response to the growing demand for digital assets among their account holders.

The service will be available to corporate and institutional clients starting in the second half of 2024.

Similarly, Deutsche Bank is also developing its own custodial service for digital assets.

#NekoNews @OriNeko

Base asset tokenization protocol loses $1.7M due to private key leak

Real-world asset tokenization protocol Grand Base (GB), which operates on Coinbase’s native layer-2 blockchain, has suffered $1.7 million in losses after a private key compromise.

"On April 15 at 03:01:27 AM +UTC, an exploit happened on our contracts,” wrote an admin in the protocol’s Telegram chat. “For this specific reason, we urge all our community members to stay away from this contract as it is not safe anymore.”

According to blockchain analytics firm PeckShield, the private key leak resulted in the theft of $1.7 million in tokens from its liquidity pools, which have since been swapped on-chain for Ether and sent to an external address. Simultaneously, the protocol’s native token lost 99% of its value within the past 24 hours due to the incident.

#NekoNews @OriNeko