Category Archives: Ethereum
Ethereum NFT production falls to all-time low in September – Yahoo Finance
Non-fungible token (NFT) production on Ethereum, or the value of the primary sales generated from NFT minting, fell to an all-time low of US$17.55 million in September, down 12.4% from US$20.05 million in August, according to Forkast Labs data.
NFTs are blockchain-based digital assets that can provide information on digital ownership. Notable collections like the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) were trading at a floor price of 128 ETH (US$211,000) in May 2022, before dropping more than 60% along with other notable NFT collections like CryptoPunks, which fell 60.4% to 45 Eth (US$72,727), from an all-time high of 113.9 Eth (US$184,080) recorded on Oct. 9, 2021.
rSXMtvTpD6 Wloq XIcc1K2zfvx30HVBEhb2U1NxG5P56 nJqKnUs moYxCZowqorZ d X2lEMU4BTzCk4i9JOxnL6neqhGf0eI dwRDauANByHoia1YUwdbKcllv5zHojt3lNsSaFdGtNihmhoQTA
Blue-chip NFT collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks serve as indicators of broader NFT market sentiment. Their decline might signify a shift in investor sentiment, perhaps questioning the intrinsic value of such assets, Matan Doyich, the chief executive officer of Crypto Index, a firm building centralized infrastructure for tokenized crypto exchange-traded funds, told Forkast.
Reflecting the overall NFT bear market, the Forkast ETH NFT Composite, an index that measures the performance of the top 250 NFTs in the Ethereum blockchain, fell 48% year-to-date to an all-time low of 715.22 points recorded on Sept. 28.
NFT production on the Polygon blockchain fell to a seven-month low of US$4.7 million in September, down from a yearly high of US$14.44 million in August. Polygon NFT production is up 219% year-to-date, from US$1.47 million in January. Despite the rising numbers, the Forkast POL NFT Composite fell over 46% year-to-date.
nA6MeMq Ns3Xs1vx7ClVkDJSp9 MP6tUuvu22rVJ9YQpN s2fgFlOSMwf9v0075hRL3EXg4CtuAJP3l27CJc20MCe7ZTrFSlxYOkUcWPABQ6 CATJa P20qOryRqmbaajfyk88N2PnGa9Sz A96i8OM
The overall NFT market slump, along with the decrease in NFT production, can be attributed to a loss of interest by NFT investors, according to Anndy Lian, author of NFT: From Zero to Hero.
The NFT market was driven by a lot of hype in 2021. However, this has died down in recent months, as people have become more realistic and choosy about the kind of NFTs they want, said Lian.
Story continues
NFT services revenue on Ethereum, or total marketplace fees and creator royalties from secondary sales, fell 84.4% year-to-date to US$6.01 million in September from US$38.74 million in January according to Forkast Labs data.
McMtWJ4bpmhsHJlSLNzLgTXoFuDZLvCYaZWv H9JUyXmzl2RKrqo 2JXgrnwfP84ZxSC4wFpgTJZKniWsasoDicIbtuYA3ML87aWVBH9o mT WPaIS OrH8QXeMavN0PhYue LaOoRlgIYYmUGuNdKI
At OpenSea, one of the worlds largest NFT marketplaces, the protocols monthly NFT trading volume fell 31.8% to US$76.79 million in September from US$112.74 million in August, according to data from The Block.
Blur, OpenSeas rival marketplace, had its trading volume fall 38.3% to US$150.42 million in September, down from US$243.92 million in August.
To reignite interest in NFTs, the industry needs to see and demand innovations that go beyond digital art and collectibles, such as incorporating NFTs into more substantial real-world applications, Doyich told Forkast.
This year brought new use cases for NFTs, which will be needed to drive institutional investors, according to David Tng, managing director at TZ APAC, the Asian entity of the Tezos blockchain.
NFTs will rely on the same pain point of needing to prove their utility, especially against the backdrop of a very volatile market. However, we are still seeing rapid growth and innovation. Enterprises and artists continue to use NFTs as a platform to explore, create and engage with their audiences, wrote Tng, in a statement shared with Forkast.
Despite the market slump, globally recognized brands continue adopting NFTs. Starbucks launched an NFT version of its iconic pumpkin spice latte last Thursday, to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of the iconic drink. The NFTs worth US$20 have no minting limit and users will receive 250 bonus points that can be spent to improve their Starbucks Odyssey experience, which is the companys Web3 rewards and loyalty platform.
See related article: DeFi revenue remains resilient despite Curve Finance hack
Read the original:
Ethereum NFT production falls to all-time low in September - Yahoo Finance
Ethereum and Cardano face downturns, Tradecurve Markets … – Investing.com
Investing.com|EditorHari G
Published Oct 13, 2023 09:43AM ET
Facing downturns in their market prices, Ethereum (ETH) and Cardano (ADA) are experiencing significant market shifts this Friday. Despite Ethereum's blue-chip status indicating a potential future rally, the current price decline is attributed to a change in sentiment, profit-taking, and overall market bearishness. Simultaneously, Cardano's token ADA has also seen a substantial decline from its peak. Nevertheless, with an ROI of over 1,000% since its launch, Cardano maintains indications of potential future growth.
Adding to these market dynamics, Ethereum's futures market is witnessing an extraordinary increase in open interest, suggesting unsettled futures contracts. This surge reflects a wave of investors speculating on Ethereum's future prices, leading to heightened price volatility amidst rampant speculative trading. Despite Ethereum's ongoing price consolidation, the relentless rise of open interest signals a stark divergence that could predict substantial imminent price shifts. The intersection of the extraordinary increase in open interest and intense price volatility could trigger market phenomena known as "long squeeze" and "short squeeze."
Amidst these fluctuations in the crypto markets, Tradecurve Markets (TCRV) is emerging as a promising alternative investment. TCRV's hybrid trading platform combines the best features of centralized and decentralized exchanges. It offers deep liquidity across thousands of assets and access to leveraged products while protecting user privacy with no KYC checks.
The TCRV platform operates in three simple steps: account opening without KYC via email in about 2 minutes; deciding on and depositing the desired crypto; and using the crypto balance as collateral to trade assets using leverage. With over 18,000 users already onboarded, TCRV is set to revolutionize the trading world. Its token is currently priced at $0.03 in the presale stage, but an 80x rally is predicted by industry experts by the end of 2023.
This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.
Read market moving news with a personalized feed of stocks you care about.
Get The App
Written By: Investing.com
Go here to see the original:
Ethereum and Cardano face downturns, Tradecurve Markets ... - Investing.com
What is Scroll? The Latest Ethereum L2 to Join the Zero-Knowledge … – CCN.com
Scroll is the latest Ethereum L2 to deploy ZK rollup technology.
Ethereum scaling solutions based on zero knowledge (ZK) rollups have exploded in recent times, and the technologys proponents argue it represents the blockchains future. Already, there are over a dozen projects exploring ZK rollups for a variety of applications.
The latest Layer 2 to enter the fray Scroll launched discretely on October 8. But how can the new technology stand out in an increasingly crowded field?
To date, more than a dozen Ethereum scaling solutions have been developed that deploy ZK rollups.
Some of these are application-specific. For instance, the dYdX crypto exchange built its own ZK roll-up system to help reduce fees for users.
Other solutions are more ambitious, like Loopring, which used the technology to build a general-purpose business platform for trading, swapping, liquidity provision, and payments.
Finally, at the most universal level, L2s like Starknet, ZKSync Era, and Linea are open to any Web3 application that could benefit from the scalability and lower gas fees offered by ZK rollups.
Although there are plenty of ZK rollup-based L2s already available, Scroll was developed with the vision of creating a user-friendly platform for the full spectrum of decentralized applications (dApps).
One major challenge Ethereum developers faced when working with ZK rollups was the lack of full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). As such, they remain out of reach for many Ethereum dApp developers.
However, Scroll contributes to recent advances in EVM-compatible rollups known as zkEVMs.
In fact, the new platform could even be the first type 1 zkEVM according to Vitalik Buterins four-part categorization whereby type 1 zkEVMs strive to be fully and uncompromisingly Ethereum-equivalent.
The lack of strong Ethereum equivalence in existing solutions makes them very difficult to use for the average dApp developer. Many ZK rollups require the use of obscure programming languages and a deep understanding of zero-knowledge proofs.
However, with Scroll, developers can implement smart contracts using any EVM-compatible language.
Arguing that existing solutions are developer-unfriendly, Scrolls developers have said they want to provide the best developer experience [] so that existing Ethereum applications can simply migrate over onto the zk-Rollup as is.
The ZK in ZK rollups refers to the use of zero-knowledge proofs: a cryptographic process for verifying information without revealing its content.
ZK rollups offload complex computation and state storage off-chain, processing numerous transactions in a batch and posting only summarized data to the Ethereum mainnet. Using ZK proofs, they can succinctly verify that the summary data is true.
A major obstacle to the widespread use of ZK proofs is the time necessary to generate them. For example, the ZCash network can take over 30 seconds to generate proof for each anonymous transaction. Meanwhile, Filecoin requires around an hour to make each proof.
However, Scroll co-founder Ye Zhang has developed a new hardware acceleration method that can increase the speed of proof generation by 100x.
In a recent blog post, Zhang observed that the ultimate goal for the Ethereum community was to build an Ethereum-equivalent zkEVM which can be used to prove mainnet blocks.
He also proposed a future Ethereum in which validators dont need to re-execute a layer 1 block, but instead, they only verify a succinct zk proof.
The dream is surely a lofty one, which could dramatically streamline Ethereums entire operation. Imagine one day, you can prove the whole history of Ethereum via one single proof, Zhang said. Isnt that super exciting?
Was this Article helpful? YesNo
Read more from the original source:
What is Scroll? The Latest Ethereum L2 to Join the Zero-Knowledge ... - CCN.com
Uniswap Launches Mobile Ethereum Wallet on Android – Decrypt
Leading decentralized exchange Uniswap released a mobile crypto wallet for Android on Thursday, months after doing the same on Apples iOS platform.
The app is currently in beta while the company invites members of the DeFi community to help it test the wallet before its released more widely to users. As per Uniswaps Twitter feed, some 35,000 users have already signed up to the waitlist.
In line with the beta launch, the Uniswap Labs team will also open-source the code as part of its Trail of Bits audit. Trail of Bits is a cybersecurity company that offers blockchain auditing, and develops Web3 tools that identify and fix vulnerabilities in smart contracts and other parts of code.
Bridgett Frey, a spokesperson for Uniswap Labs, told Decrypt that the Android app is launching today in beta to ensure we iron out any issues as the firm onboards new users, with a broader release expected before the end of the year.
According to the Uniswap team, the newly unveiled wallet comes with a set of features for what the firm thinks makes a great swap. A blog post announcing the apps beta launch promises split-second swaps, easy discovery of new tokens, and transparent pricing that seeks to highlight fees that arent readily apparent to traders.
Another feature is automatic switching between blockchain mainnets, like Ethereum, and layer-2 scaling networks like Optimism or Arbitrum.
For users looking to swap between layers, Uniswap Labs says the Android wallet will automatically guess the desired target and make the switch. It will offer access to Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Base and BNB Chain.
Two common exploits in DeFi are known as sandwich and frontrunning attacks. The former refers to when an attacker sandwiches a swap between two transactions to make a profit; the latter occurs when an attacker sees a pending transaction, and knowing the price for which a token will be swapped, submits their own swap.
In order to defend users against these types of attacks, Uniswap has added swap protection to the Android mobile wallet. Essentially, swaps will now default to a private transaction pool, defending users from such MEV attacks.
Todays launch comes six months after Uniswap launched a version of the app for the Apple iPhone, which the Uniswap Labs team said became a top three download the month it launched. A Uniswap Labs spokesperson did not immediately provide download statistics.
Referring to today's release, Frey told Decrypt that Uniswap Labs always knew that we would want to quickly follow the iOS launch with an Android app, as Uniswap is a global product and much of the world does not use Apple.
The protocol has been under regulatory fire in recent months, after a class action lawsuit was filed against it. The case against Uniswap was ultimately tossed out by New York Judge Katherine Polk Failla, in a ruling that a legal scholar dubbed a strange kind of anomaly.
Read this article:
Uniswap Launches Mobile Ethereum Wallet on Android - Decrypt
The price of Bitcoin and Ethereum – The Cryptonomist
In the early days of October, the price of ETH (Ethereum) has suffered more than that of BTC (Bitcoin). In particular, while Bitcoin has held up quite well, Ethereum, on the other hand, appears to be declining.
At the beginning of the month, the price of ETH was around US$1,675, up from the end of September.
After reaching as high as 1,750 USD on October 2, it began a slow descent, bringing it first to 1,600 USD three days later, and then even just above 1,500 USD yesterday.
Right now it is losing 7.5% since the beginning of the month, and almost 12% from its October highs.
However, one has to extend the analysis to the past months as well to get a better idea of what is happening.
In fact it has gained 34% since the beginning of the year, but practically all the gain was in early January. In fact, the current value corresponds to that of January 14, which is the one on which the very rise at the beginning of the year stopped.
It should be mentioned that between March and April it rose as high as 2,140 USD, a level that has still not been exceeded since then.
Then again, that rise in March and April was due to the anticipation of the Shapella update, and once that was exhausted everything returned to normal.
Suffice it to say that by mid-June it was back below 1,700 USD, which is a level in line with that of January 20.
What was perhaps a little surprising is the descent below 1,700 USD, which began in mid-August, and perhaps ended just yesterday. Actually already on September 11 it had fallen to $1,530, but yesterday it updated this low for the second half of 2023.
Right now it is at -68% from the highs of 2021.
The parabola of BTCs price in this 2023 has been similar, but it began to differ sharply just in October.
Specifically, if at the beginning of the month the price was around US$27,000, the current price is only 0.6% lower.
Moreover, given that it has now been lateralizing around 27,000 USD since mid-March, we can say that it did not fall in October as ETH did.
Moreover, compared to the beginning of the year it is gaining 67%, compared to ETHs 34%, and compared to the 2021 highs it is at -61%.
Even in mid-August, when Ethereum made a -16% in three days, in the same period Bitcoin was limited to a -14% that already hinted at a possible differentiation.
The most substantial difference is the one that has accumulated since April 21, when Bitcoin was always at around US$27,000, while Ethereum was above US$1,800. Since then, the price of BTC has lost almost nothing, while ETH is at -16%.
Very interesting is to examine the evolution over the months of the ratio of the market capitalization of Bitcoin to that of Ethereum.
Currently, that ratio is about 2.81 times, with the 2023 peak recorded just three days ago at 2.86.
It should be noted that at the beginning of the year that ratio was only 2.17 times, and that the annual low occurred on January 11 at 2.02.
It has practically been doing nothing but rising since the second half of January, albeit by a small amount.
Even in April, during ETHs mini bull run due to the Shapella update, it was still going up, so much so that it exceeded 2.5.
In other words during 2023 Bitcoins uptrend against Ethereum was never seriously challenged.
It should be noted that the last time values similar to the current ones were recorded was in the first half of July last year, which was after the failure of Celsius and BlockFi following the implosion of the Terra/Luna ecosystem. Also during the all-time highs in November 2021 it was below 2.3.
This apparent decline of Ethereum is actually not at all abnormal.
Something similar in fact was also found during the long crypto winter of 2018/2019, with the price of ETH losing more than Bitcoin and then gaining more than BTC during the bullrun.
Therefore, this is not a true decline, but a different reaction to bear-market and bull-market.
In particular at this time it simply seems that the price of Bitcoin is more resilient.
In this month of October for example, the Dollar Index has remained very high, above 106 points, even rising above 107 points at the beginning of the month. This rise highlighted a small flight from risk-on assets, which penalized Ethereum but did not penalize Bitcoin too much.
The difference can also be seen by comparing the trend with that of the gold price.
The ultimate safe-haven asset over the past two weeks has risen only 2%, so much so that the current level is still lower than it was on September 27, for example. During the same period, Bitcoins price has lost almost nothing, while Ethereums has lost 7.5%.
The anomaly lies in the resilience of BTC, rather than the suffering of ETH, since the latter is for all intents and purposes a risk-on asset. It is as if Bitcoin is considered less risky than ETH.
View post:
Solana to spike following hyperdrive hackathon portal, Ethereum … – InvestorsObserver
Solana to spike following hyperdrive hackathon portal, Ethereum sees less activity per Messari, Tradecurve Markets opens derivatives trading to anyone
2023-10-12 04:35:38 ET
The Solana (SOL) Hyperdrive Hackathon submission portal went live. As a result, interest in the crypto has increased. Also, Ethereum (ETH) saw a high level of attention recently. It was revealed that 60% of all of the transactions were done on Layer-2 solutions. Moreover, Tradecurve Markets (TCRV) is also getting recognition, as it will open the derivatives market to anyone globally.
Solana (SOL) recently announced that the submission portal for the Hyperdrive Hackathon is live. Team leaders will now need to create an account and complete project submission questions in the portal.
Anyone can submit a proposal for this Solana hackathon by October 15. This raised a high level of hype and attention to the project and can contribute towards increased value.
The Solana crypto traded between $21.90 and $24.12 during the previous week. Moreover, the crypto increased in value by 20.8% during the past 30 days. At this rate, analysts are bullish on the future of the token. According to the Solana price prediction, it can surge to $29.22 by the end of 2023.
Ethereum (ETH) activity was dominant across Layer-2 solutions. In fact, they accounted for a total of 60% of all of the activity in Q3 of 2023. Moreover, based on the report made by Messari, the Coinbase base Network did more transactions than Ethereums own mainnet did. In addition, Optimism as an L2 saw an increase of 40%
During the previous week, the Ethereum crypto saw its low point at $1,561.31, with its high point at $1,656.82. In addition, Ethereum has grown in value by 20% during the past year. Based on the Ethereum price prediction, it can surge to a maximum point of $2,335.71 by the end of 2023.
TCRV is the primary currency within the Tradecurve ecosystem. This utility token will provide users that hold TCRV with rewards and perks they can use instantly inside the Tradecurve trading platform. Tradecurve Markets is an upcoming platform that will combine elements of CEXs and DEXs to provide a streamlined, all-in-one experience.
Anyone can access multiple classes through the platform. They can trade forex, crypto, stocks, commodities, and CFDs all from a single account, this approach will make it accessible to anyone globally.
Moreover, users will not have to worry about any mandatory KYC requirements, as they can just deposit crypto and use it as collateral. Theres an AI-driven trading bot. Through it, anyone can access automated trading and optimize their portfolio accordingly. Moreover, theres leverage starting at 500:1 and a VIP account system.
During Stage 6 of the presale, the TCRV token trades at $0.03. So far, it has grown in value by 200%. At launch, it can jump by 45x based on analysts projections. The team will also list the token on Tier-1 exchanges and Uniswap DEX, making it far more accessible.
For more information about the Tradecurve Markets (TCRV) presale you can visit https://tradecurvemarkets.com/ or follow them on Twitter https://twitter.com/Tradecurveapp .
The post Solana to spike following hyperdrive hackathon portal, Ethereum sees less activity per Messari, Tradecurve Markets opens derivatives trading to anyone appeared first on Invezz.
See the original post:
Solana to spike following hyperdrive hackathon portal, Ethereum ... - InvestorsObserver
Not Bitcoin, Ethereum or Cardano, but these crypto assets hold the potential for a bull run – FXStreet
When it comes to cryptocurrencies, most investors only focus on a few of the top assets, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and, sadly, meme coins. However, there are other altcoins that can likely eclipse these assets and initiate a bull run very soon.
Research firm Sistine Research highlighted three assets that are close to initiating another leg of rally, provided they can manage to break out of their critical resistance levels. These assets were Monero (XMR), Solana (SOL), and Tron (TRX).
According to their tweet, XMR price against Bitcoin is very close to the critical barrier that has kept the altcoin trading under it since the beginning of May. If Monero manages to break the resistance, which stands at 0.005757 BTC, an uptrend is on the cards. However, a failed breakout and invalidation of 0.005577 BTC could lead to a decline.
Similarly, in the case of Solana price, the breakout zone lies around $40, which marks the pre-FTX collapse double top. In order to do that, the altcoin would first have to reclaim the support at $25. However, the failure to do so could result in an invalidation of the ongoing uptrend and crash to $16.
The third asset, TRX, has been in an uptrend since November 2022, rising by more than 81%. However, the breakout zone for the altcoin lies at $0.125, far above its current trading price of $0.084. Furthermore, if the cryptocurrency loses the support of its uptrend line, the bullish thesis would be invalidated.
Even though these assets are bullish in nature at the moment, considering their price action, they are still dependent on Bitcoin for their movement going forward. The reason behind this is the high correlation they share with BTC. The correlation of Monero stands at 0.68, that of Tron is around 0.72, and Solana has the highest correlation of 0.93.
Correlation of Bitcoin with aforementioned altcoins
Thus, if Bitcoin price recovers, the chances of these altcoin rallies improve significantly. Similarly, the vulnerability of a crash for XMR, SOL and TRX will also intensify should BTC decline in the future.
The rest is here:
Crypto Analyst Predicts More Rallies for Ethereum-Based Altcoin, Says Crazy Moves Ahead for Bitcoin (BTC) – The Daily Hodl
A closely followed crypto strategist says more rallies are likely in sight for a low-cap altcoin running on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.
Pseudonymous analyst Altcoin Sherpa tells his 196,700 followers on the social media platform X that the native asset of the image-synthesizing ecosystem Render Network (RNDR) is likely due for a 33% rally from its current level.
The trader shares a chart showing how RNDR has converted its previous resistance at $1.80 into support with multiple exponential moving averages buoying the Ethereum-based altcoins uptrend.
RNDR trade going well. Going to be selling all the way up to $2.40.
At time of writing, RNDR is trading for $1.80, down over 2% in the last 24 hours.
Looking at Bitcoin (BTC), Altcoin Sherpa says that the flagship crypto could witness a notable surge in volatility toward the end of the year. The crypto strategist lays out two scenarios for Bitcoin both of which depend on how BTC reacts should it hit $30,000.
BTC: where the next high is set is extremely key. If we hit some sort of lower high around $30,000 and die, were going to go to the low $20,000, in my opinion.
If we break past $32,000, this probably goes to like $40,000.
In other words, this is how I sort of envision it going down. Probably going to be a lot of crazy moves over the next four-ish months. Should be fun.
At time of writing, Bitcoin is worth $27,980.
Generated Image: Midjourney
The rest is here:
Ether Slides as Ethereum Foundation Swaps $2.7M ETH on Uniswap – CoinDesk
Ether prices slipped some 1.5% in the past few hours as traders seemed to react to a wallet apparently belonging to the Ethereum Foundation that sold a portion of its allocated tokens.
Wallet 0x9eE457023bB3De16D51A003a247BaEaD7fce313D swapped over 1,700 ETH for $2.7 million in USDC on Monday, Arkham data shows. The wallet is tagged as a Grant Provider on blockchain tracker Etherscan and holds nearly $400,000 worth of tokens as of Monday morning.
As of writing time, the Ethereum Foundation did not publicly reveal specifics of what it intended to do with the proceeds. Traders reacted to the move nevertheless, with ETH extending losses to 1.8% in the past 24 hours to leading a slide slump among major tokens.
The Ethereum Foundation develops applications and programs for the Ethereum network, but isnt an official entity or a centralized group that controls what happens on the chain. However, it remains very influential and can impact token prices or Ethereums inherent outlook among investors or developers.
As of April 2022, it held over almost $1.29 billion in ether (ETH), which represented over 0.297% of the total ether supply at the time, and about $300 million in non-crypto investments.
The rest is here:
Ether Slides as Ethereum Foundation Swaps $2.7M ETH on Uniswap - CoinDesk
Ethereum is ‘much more centralized than folks realize’: Blocknative’s Matt Cutler – Blockworks
Blocknative discontinued its MEV-boost relayer service on Ethereum last week. While other relayers do remain, a large majority of Ethereum transactions are now handled by just four entities.
Relayers are responsible for bridging transactions between block builders and proposers. Without relayers, the network would face delays in transaction confirmations, reduced efficiency and potential bottlenecks, disrupting the smooth processing of transactions.
This development not only raises centralization concerns, but also underscores one of Ethereums central obstacles post-Merge: Relayers are providing costly services without compensation.
Blockworks: Some funding approaches would solicit community donations to reward relayers while keeping the service free. Why didnt you buy into these sorts of funding models?
Cutler: Were a US-based entity, and that means OFAC SDN is a fact of life for us. We work very hard to be ecosystem aligned, and there are a lot of hard line stances as it relates to OFAC SDN compliance. A number of the public goods funding approaches that were being discussed for relays explicitly carved out relays that were OFAC SDN compliant, and I had some in-depth conversations with [Ethereum Foundation] core devs who basically felt that this was a black and white issue.
By the way, each infraction of OFAC SDN is up to a $30 million fine and up to 30 years in jail, right? And each transaction can be considered an infraction. So its like infinite liability. We were put in a sort of a rock and a hard place situation where we couldnt satisfy both.
Blockworks: Were you told OFAC compliance would keep you from receiving funds from community relayer funds that are currently in the works?
Cutler: While this was a topic of active discussion, specifically we never got that far. I think from our perspective this is really not about covering our costs. I mean, certainly the costs are substantial, but you know were trying to build a business here. And so just keeping the lights on and maybe not even paying for engineer salaries doesnt really cut it. Were trying to drive growth, right?
Blockworks: One argument made against more baked-in revenue creation for relays is that charging fees creates a slippery slope where fees increase and users find ways to circumvent relays. What would you say to this?
Cutler: There is no other part of core Ethereum infrastructure which is really funded as a public good, maybe other than consensus clients, and theyre funded pretty heavily. So why do we pass the hat for something which is operationally required?
I was always an advocate for what I call missed slot insurance. Theres many examples of relays, including Blocknative, making staking pools pull due to missed slots. My answer was there should be a hard fee with a hard benefit. The hard fee is youre gonna pay into an insurance pool, and in the event where the relay network doesnt do its job, you can expect missed slot insurance. OK, conversely, if youre using a relay which is not part of the structure, you cannot expect insurance, but this is the bargain.
Really what the network wants from the relay network is not competition. It wants utility. I flip on the light switch, and the lights come on, and I sort of understand that theres a whole set of people who might be involved in delivering the power, but I dont want to think about any of that. I dont want to hear that, like, the oil came out of the ground in Bahrain and then got put on a boat that got caught up in the Suez Canal, and you gotta call the boat company. Youre like, no, I just want the lights to go on, right? Youre receiving this massive benefit from our operations, and there should be some sort of fee structure thats associated with it.
Blockworks: To zoom out for a second, why do relayers matter for Ethereum and the worldview its trying to advance?
Cutler: The whole idea is were building the foundation of the next economy thats fundamentally more equitable than the existing system, and maybe its inevitable we recreate it, right? Thats something that is concerning to me.
At the relayer network, we now have four entities two in the US, two in Europe that relay 93% of all the blocks on Ethereum. Theres no explicit economic incentive, therefore there are implicit economic incentives that are opaque. There are all sorts of economic incentives to do things like colocation and theres all sorts of backroom deals that are possible and may even be happening right now. The network is much more centralized than folks realize and is on a trend to become more centralized. Its going in the wrong direction, and hey, Blocknative exiting, we can decide if this is a good or a bad thing or if its a non event, but theres no question its now more centralized this week than it was last week.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Dont miss the next big story join ourfree daily newsletter.
Follow Sam Bankman-Frieds trial with the latest news from the courtroom.
Continued here:
Ethereum is 'much more centralized than folks realize': Blocknative's Matt Cutler - Blockworks