Circle CCTP on Arbitrum | deBridge on Solana | Polygon 2.0 Interop Layer | ZK Stack & More!
Last Week In The Multi-Chain Ecosystem (26 June - 02 July '23)
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Bridge Updates
1) Circle’s CCTP is Now Live on Arbitrum 🔥
Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) is now live on Arbitrum, enabling direct transfers to-and-from Ethereum and Avalanche. Users can access CCTP via bridging interfaces like Jumper.exchange, cBridge, among others.
2) deBridge is Now Live on Solana 💪
deBridge is live on Solana, making it one of the few bridging protocols to enable message and liquidity transfers between Solana and EVM blockchains.
3) Centauri Bridge Connects Cosmos and Polkadot 🤝
Centauri, a bridge developed by Composable Finance and Strangelove Labs that leverages IBC, launched in beta on 29 June. IBC-enabled Cosmos chains can use Centauri to conduct IBC transfers with ~80 DotSama parachains.
4) Polynetwork Attacked Again 🧐
According to Peckshield and Lookonchain, Polynetwork was attacked again and the attackers issued additional assets on several chains. As a result of the attack, 57 assets have been affected on 10 chains.
According to Dedaub, the private keys of Polynetwork’s 3/4 multi-sig were compromised. The total realized gain for the attacker is ~$5.5m.
In response, the Metis team reassured its users via a tweet, stating, "All funds on Metis Andromeda are secure." They further clarified that no liquidity is available for the recently generated BNB and BUSD tokens on Metis.
The attackers have sold various assets amounting to approximately 391 ETH. Additionally, they are transferring assets and 1 ETH to new wallets, presumably intending to sell them.
5) LI.FI Integrations and Partnerships 🦎
LI.FI announced several integrations in the past week, including:
Seashell, a smart portal for DeFi that allows users to automate their DeFi chores and optimize complex strategies, is using LI.FI to power xChain contract calls. This enables a simple user experience that abstracts away the complexities of depositing into the Blueberry Vaults on Arbitrum.
Shapeshift, one of Web3’s leading multi-chain crypto platforms, has integrated LI.FI’s SDK
Relay Chain, a bridge aggregator that finds the best route to bridge through, has integrated LI.FI’s SDK.
KiloEx, a user-friendly perp DEX focused on risk management and capital efficiency, has integrated LI.FI’s widget on their platform.
Pontoon Finance, a meta aggregator dApp, has integrated LI.FI’s API.
Multi-Chain Ecosystem Updates
1) Matter Labs Introduces ZK Stack 🔥
Matter Labs, the team behind zkSync, released the ZK Stack, a modular framework for building sovereign ZK-powered Hyperchains based on Era’s open-source code.
The ZK Stack will allow teams to build a custom Hyperchain (configured for their specific use case) with fully trustless, cheap, asynchronous connectivity to the rest of the Hyperchain ecosystem.
Polygon Labs released the zk-based protocol architecture of Polygon 2.0, which includes 4 layers:
Staking Layer — a PoS-based protocol which leverages Polygon’s native token to provide "out-of-the-box" decentralization to participating Polygon chains.
Interop Layer — facilitates cross-chain messaging within the ecosystem.
Execution Layer — enables any Polygon chain to produce sequenced batches of transactions, aka blocks.
Proving Layer — a performant, flexible proving protocol. It proves all transactions for every Polygon chain.
3) Celer Launches Peti: A Bridgeless Omnichain Liquidity Protocol 🔗
Celer announced the launch of Peti, an omnichain liquidity protocol that provides a smooth and cost effective UX for power users and capital efficiency for institutional market makers.
Catalyst, a permissionless cross-chain liquidity layer, announced its plans to build on Celestia. The integration will enable cross-chain swaps between assets on Celestia rollups and the other chains.
What’s Popping?
Today’s “What’s Popping?” is a guest post from none other than the incredible Optimistic Newsletter team, Jiraya_OG and Subli.
Subli is one of LI.FI’s OG community members who has been riding the waves with us through the last 2+ years. He is also an OP Ambassador and the curator of the Optimistic Newsletter, consistently delivering the latest updates from the Optimism ecosystem, right to everyone’s mailboxes.
As long-time admirers of Subli’s work, we approached him to write a post all about the OP Stack, with a particular focus on the opBNB launch news to help us gain valuable insights into the happenings within that domain. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did.
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Transforming BNB Chain: Exploring the Potential of opBNB and the OP Stack 🔴_🔴
In February 2023, Coinbase made a significant move by introducing Base, an Ethereum L2 solution built using Optimism’s OP Stack. This development naturally led to anticipation regarding Binance's response, as these two teams are always competing against each other.
A few months later and it’s now Binance’s turn to join the race for the best EVM-compatible layer 2 chain title.
BNB Chain has officially announced the launch of 'opBNB' based on the OP Stack.
In this article, we delve into the significance of opBNB, the power of the OP Stack, and the features it brings to the BNB Chain.
Why are all these projects building with the OP Stack? Let’s find out!
Why Does BNB Chain Need a New L2?
As we know, layer 1 networks like the BNB Chain and Ethereum often face the challenge of network congestion, commonly called the "DeFi of network congestion."
This congestion arises when popular projects launch promotional campaigns, resulting in a surge of users that overwhelms the network. Consequently, users experience significant disruptions, such as transaction delays and higher-than-average transaction fees, posing a real problem.
To overcome these issues, such chains must consistently enhance their scalability, ensuring they can handle more transactions per second without compromising security.
opBNB emerges as the solution for BNB Chain, offering developers and users a fast, secure, and cost-effective solution that addresses these challenges.
Now, let's shift our focus to the essence of the matter: the technology behind it all.
The Power of OP Stack
The OP Stack is a robust framework that enables the development of scalable and interoperable layer-2 solutions.
By embracing the OP Stack, the BNB Chain can achieve greater scalability while maintaining the accessibility and security of its primary chain. This is exemplified in opBNB.
The OP Stack grants chains like opBNB access to a multitude of advantages, including:
Modularized and customizable frameworks: provides a flexible platform wherein developers can adjust various configuration values to cater to their specific requirements.
Simplified process for migrating applications — the process of migrating applications from the EVM to the BNB Chain is streamlined, enabling developers to expand their user base.
Improved scalability — opBNB can harness the power of optimistic rollups to significantly reduce the computational burden on the BNB Chain, leading to improvements in scalability. opBNB can process over 4000 transfer transactions per second while maintaining an average transaction cost below $0.005, all within a gas limit of up to 100M.
Validity of transactions (security) — opBNB implements a fraud-proof system that ensures the validity of transactions. Anyone can contest the outcome of a cumulative transaction by producing anti-fraud evidence, which, if successful, triggers a re-execution of the transaction(s), thereby upholding the network's integrity.
Is opBNB Bullish for the OP Superchain?
Recently, there has been a lot of confusion on Twitter regarding the relationship between opBNB and the OP Superchain.
Let's clarify this once and for all: opBNB is not necessarily bullish for the OP Superchain.
This is because opBNB is built on the OP stack but is not part of the Optimism Superchain (a network of chains that share bridging, decentralized governance, upgrades, a communication layer and more).
In contrast, it's important to note that Coinbase's Base is indeed part of the Optimism Superchain. A portion of the chain's revenue will be directed towards Retroactive Public Good Funds, contributing to the operation of the Optimism flywheel where Impact equals Profit (Impact = Profit).
Instead, here’s how we should see the flywheel:
The OP Stack is an open-source public good.
When projects choose to build on the OP Stack, they contribute to this framework's overall performance and development.
Unlike other platforms, where you have a single team leading the development efforts, the OP Stack benefits from numerous teams actively contributing and advancing the technology.
Thus, opBNB is bullish for the OP Stack but not for the OP Superchain.
OpBNB: Testnet is LIVE
On June 19, the opBNB Testnet was officially launched, inviting testnet validators and dApp constructors to explore the testnet and share their valuable feedback.
For further information and to access the opBNB Testnet, you can visit the following links:
Testnet Link: opBNB: A high-performance optimistic layer-2 solution for BNB Smart Chain (bnbchain.org)
opBNB: High Performance and Low Cost L2 based on Optimism OP Stack (bnbchain.org)
Introducing opBNB: Unleashing a New Era of Scalability (bnbchain.org)
If you wish to stay informed about the latest news and developments in the Optimism ecosystem, we highly recommend subscribing to the Optimistic newsletter today for timely updates and valuable insights.
Interesting Reads
1) LI.FI: The Stablecoin Bridge Almanac 2023
3) Payment Pipelines: Embedding the future of Web3 native payments
4) The private vs. public blockchain debate gets it wrong
5) The World of 'Trust-Minimized' Middleware: Consensus Verification & Bridging
6) Decentralized Proving, Proof Markets, and ZK Infrastructure
7) [Checklist] How Permissionless is Your Interoperability Provider?
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