Značka: Open Source

zkSync developer Matter Labs raises $200M, commits to open-sourcing platform

Matter Labs, the developer behind the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible zkSync, has received major industry backing as it pledges to fully open source its platform — marking the first such initiative for a ZK-rollup technology. Matter Labs confirmed on Nov. 16 that it had closed a $200 million Series C funding round co-led by Blockchain Capital and Dragonfly, with additional participation from LightSpeed Venture Partners, Variant and existing investor Andreessen Horowitz. The company has now raised $458 million in financing across all rounds, including $200 million from BitDAO that’s earmarked for funding ecosystem projects.Founded in 2018, Matter Labs is working to scale Ethereum through zero-knowledge proofs, a digital authentication process that enables seamless data sharing between two parties. Ethereum has enjoyed widescale acceptance among developers in the blockchain community, but mainstream adoption of its technology has been partially hindered by scalability issues. As a ZK-rollup technology, zkSync provides a layer-2 scalability solution for Ethereum that maintains the network’s security or decentralization features. Over 150 projects have signaled their intent to launch on zkSync’s mainnet, which was released on Oct. 28 as part of a multi-stage process to bring the protocol into full production. Some of its most notable partners include Chainlink, Uniswap, Aave, Curve, 1inch and SushiSwap. In addition to the funding announcement, Matter Labs disclosed that its zkSync technology would be released through an MIT Open Source license later this quarter. This gives developers the ability to view, modify and fork the code.In an interview with Cointelegraph, Matter Labs’ chief product officer Steve Newcomb said his firm wanted to “drive consensus in open source,” which is why everything in the mainnet release will be fully open sourced by MIT’s standard. He explained that, by open sourcing the protocol, zkSync could become the layer-2 standard for the industry. “In crypto, one of the major things we want to stop is centralized censorship. Anything other than full open source is centralized censorship of code,” Newcomb said. “We can’t decide who is right or wrong or good or bad.”Related: Ethereum-scaling protocol zkSync’s layer-3 prototype set for testing in 2023Although venture capital has flowed freely into blockchain projects for the past two years, deteriorating market conditions have caused investors to be much more cautious in recent months. According to Cointelegraph Research, venture funding in the crypto and blockchain industry fell 66% quarter-on-quarter to $4.98 billion. Still, 2022 is shaping to be a record year in terms funding deals and total capital raised. 

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ShapeShift moves closer to full decentralization with open-source mobile app

ShapeShift, a noncustodial crypto exchange and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), has taken additional steps toward complete decentralization by migrating users to a new open-source application — a move the organization said would enhance user mobility.The organization announced that as of Oct. 19, all native web users of the ShapeShift platform have migrated to a decentralized version of the application. The announcement also coincided with the release of a new mobile app that the organization said would provide an “authentic DeFi universe” experience. The new mobile app is said to provide users with additional flexibility, mobility and features when connecting their wallets and trading crypto. Willy Orgorzaly, who heads decentralization for the Fox Foundation — which oversees the ShapeShift DAO — said the mobile app is “fully open source” and that “the only backend is blockchain data,” which is also in the process of being decentralized. As part of its decentralization efforts, ShapeShift has expanded user options for investing and managing digital assets. It has also pledged to permanently erase users’ data once the company’s centralized infrastructure is fully wound down. Self-custody.Decentralization.Immutability.Each requires the former. This is the way.— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) June 16, 2021As reported by Cointelegraph, ShapeShift announced its plans to decentralize its entire operations in July 2021. The decentralization pledge also included a massive airdrop of FOX tokens, the native asset of the ShapeShift platform, to over 1 million users. In the following months, the organization issued multiple airdrops and fully open-sourced its v2 platform code. Related: Tech’s good intentions and why Satoshi’s new ‘social order’ founderedWhile decentralization has been at the heart of the Bitcoin (BTC) revolution, the crypto industry does not uniformly accept the concept or apply it effectively. New efforts to promote decentralization have emerged within Web3, a broad concept that refers to some future iteration of the internet.

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Controversial mixer Tornado Cash open-sources UI code

Popular cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash has fully open-sourced its user interface (UI) code — a move its developers say fulfills their mandate of complete decentralization and transparency. Tornado Cash Classic UI became fully open-sourced on Thursday, the protocol’s anonymous developers announced in a Medium blog post. Although the protocol’s UI has been decentralized since 2020, its open sourcing means anyone can analyze Toronado Cash’s UI pools and make pull requests to improve the project. In the software development world, a pull request is when a developer is ready to merge new code changes with the project’s main repository. Technically, Tornado Cash’s open-sourcing allows anyone to fork the repository and modify the code as they see fit.“We personally grew fond of the black & green floating astronaut associated with the protocol,” the developers said, referring to the current website interface. “However, you should know our credo by now: We will always lean towards more decentralization. As far as we are concerned, our DAO took a step further with this great progress.”A DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization, is an internet-native organization collectively managed by its members with no central authority or leadership. Tornado Cash first announced its DAO in mid-2020. Tornado Cash’s total value locked peaked north of $1.1 billion in October 2021. Source: DeFi Llama.Tornado Cash currently has over $300 million in total value locked, or TVL, according to DeFi Llama. This figure was closer to $850 million in November 2021 when the project announced the launch of its layer-2 scaling network on Arbitrum. Related: Crypto privacy is in greater jeopardy than ever before — Here’s whyThe Tornado Cash protocol has been at the center of several decentralized finance exploits, including the $375 million wormhole attack in February and the more recent $100 million Horizon Bridge hack. As a mixer, Tornado Cash allows cryptocurrency users to obfuscate transaction trails. Currently, the protocol supports mixing a maximum of 100 Ether (ETH) at a time.

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Is the Ukraine war intensifying regulatory pressure on crypto firms?

Whose side are you on? The Ukraine-Russia war is forcing people to answer that question. For some in the crypto community, this can be uncomfortable because if an individual or project stands with the West against Russia, it also means it abides by sanctions. This can be tough to square with crypto/blockchain’s supposed decentralized system and its claims on being borderless, censorship-free and distributed. Take OpenSea, the NFT marketplace, which really isn’t a decentralized project but is often described as such. “OpenSea is a decentralized peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling and trading rare digital goods,” according to CoinMarketCap, for instance. But, when OpenSea recently banned Iranian users from using its NFT trading platform — explaining it was only abiding by United States sanctions law — it provoked outrage among some NFT collectors. Documentary photographer Khashayar Sharifaee tweeted: I saw #OpenSea and #Metamask blacklisting and shutting down users on the sanction list.(countries like Iran, Cuba, Syria and so on)This was not the decentralized system! This was not the deal!— Khashayar sharifaee (@sharifaee) March 3, 2022This raises questions: Is the public and governmental officials now more keenly focused on crypto-regulation, especially with the outbreak out of the Russia-Ukraine war? OpenSea incensed many in its community by banning Iranian users, but did it have a choice?Further, while large United States-based crypto-related companies like FTX, Coinbase, OpenSea and Consensys have to abide by U.S. sanctions and regulations, what about decentralized projects without any easily identifiable headquarters, leaders or national affiliation. Will or can they comply, too, or do they get a pass?Finally, there’s a longer-term question: Will we ever have a truly decentralized marketplace? Won’t the cryptoverse inevitably have to compromise at least somewhat with centralized institutions like sovereign governments?More regulatory attention“Governmental authorities have definitely taken more interest in crypto-regulation as of late,” Cory Klippsten, CEO of Swan.com, told Cointelegraph when asked about recent events, adding that serious regulatory discussions have been ongoing for many years now. “Still, the Russia-Ukraine War has pushed crypto into the spotlight, which is why we are seeing more public interest concerning these crypto-regulatory developments.” “Everyone is starting to rethink the importance of compliance and crypto for a number of reasons,” agreed Carlos Domingo, founder and CEO of Securitize, told Cointelegraph. “We are seeing live, right now, the importance and effectiveness of sanctions” in connection with the war. U.S. regulators are putting pressure on the biggest players in the crypto space to comply. “And now, also, somewhat decentralized crypto platforms,” said Markus Hammer, an attorney and principal at Hammer Execution consulting firm, told Cointelegraph. Maybe that’s why OpenSea came down hard on Iranian users last week, even though Iranian sanctions were reimposed in 2020.“As regulations appear to be imminent, companies like OpenSea are trying to protect themselves by ensuring they’re compliant with any potential regulations coming down the pipeline,” said Klippsten, adding, “that’s why you’re seeing them ban Iranians.” Cointelegraph sought comment from OpenSea for this story but received no response.Will one start to see more projects such as Binance or FTX that were vague about their geographic homes become clearer about where they are based? Will others declare, like OpenSea last week: “We’re a U.S.-based company” that must “comply with U.S. sanctions law?”We’re truly sorry to the artists & creators that are impacted, but OpenSea is subject to strict policies around sanctions law. We’re a US-based company and comply with US sanctions law, meaning we’re required to block people in places on the US sanctions lists from using OpenSea— OpenSea (@opensea) March 3, 2022

“I’m not sure that OpenSea tried to hide their location,” answered Domingo. “Most people knew that the CEO and other employees were based in New York.” He also added, for the record, “I don’t see OpenSea as a decentralized project at all. I think it is pretty centralized, similar to Coinbase, Binance and FTX.”Rather, what we are seeing now is that increasingly “regulators care about fraud and illegal activities committed against their citizens and businesses, and they are increasingly willing to pursue enforcement action anywhere in the world, such as in the case of BitMEX,” said Domingo.Still, many in the crypto community see betrayal in OpenSea’s actions — blockchain-based projects are supposed to be censorship-free, after all. Was it fair that an Iranian artist, who has nothing to do with his government’s action, is now denied a platform to sell his digital art?“OpenSea has to comply with U.S. sanctions rules and laws like any other centralized U.S.-based company,” said Klippsten. “By contrast, a decentralized project like Bitcoin has no leader and is truly permissionless. It’s impossible to ban users or comply with sanctions when no one can unilaterally control the project.”It doesn’t make things easier that there are different sorts of sanctions regimes. The sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Russia, for example, are targeted. That is, they don’t apply to most ordinary Russians but rather financial concerns and Russian elites — including oligarchs. The U.S. Iranian sanctions, by contrast, affect all users based in Iran.Russians in Yekaterinburg protest the invasion of Ukraine. Source: Vladislav PostnikovParties can also differ in their interpretations of the sanctions. Iranian artist Arefeh Norouzii, who was “deplatformed” by OpenSea, for example, while an Iranian citizen “is not even domiciled in Iran,” said Hammer. “In that case, I would argue the legal basis for OpenSea’s decision to deplatform Arefeh based on their terms is not in line with the relevant sanctions.” According to Domingo, “OpenSea would be committing a crime by processing transactions from people living in Iran, and it’s as simple as that,” adding:“I know it seems unfair that people in sanctioned countries are impacted in this way since they are not responsible for their governments’ actions, but this is what the U.S. government has decided is the best way to protect its citizens and interests.”Is it fair to say, given recent events, that some entities are not as decentralized as they claim? “Some infrastructure services are more centralized than they may seem at first glance,” Fabian Schär, professor in the business and economics department at the University of Basel, told Cointelegraph, although users have other options even if projects are not fully decentralized. “They can simply run their own full node and use alternative user interfaces.” According to Hammer, many of these “somewhat decentralized” platforms didn’t even think about financial market regulations until recently. “They thought themselves in the supposedly safe ‘decentralized’ space and never considered that over time they might get caught up in market regulation of the traditional financial world.” It’s catching up with them now, however, particularly crypto exchanges with fiat ramps, he added.Will DEXs comply?What about truly decentralized projects? Are they untouchable from a regulatory/compliance standpoint? Or, given that there are some very good compliance software to identify “bad actors” on decentralized digital ledgers now, isn’t it possible for DEXs and other decentralized projects to comply if they really want to?“The tools are there and they are getting stronger and more and more effective,” said Hammer. A prime example is how Chainalysis’ forensic tools were used recently to identify the malefactor behind the famous 2016 hack of The DAO, he added.“It’s very easy for companies to comply with regulations if they want to,” agreed Domingo. “There is no lack of tools or technology and, in fact, it seems that some ‘decentralized’ projects are already doing this.”Software solutions do exist, said Schär, “and any party that bridges between traditional finance and decentralized finance is required to be compliant with Anti-Money Laundering regulation and the sanction lists.” Because their entire business model depends on access to traditional payment systems, Schär doesn’t think they will put this access at risk. By contrast, “decentralized exchanges are just smart contracts providing neutral infrastructure,” continued Schär. “A smart contract cannot run these checks. However, we also have to be aware that these decentralized exchanges have no access to traditional finance. All you can do is swap tokens.” As a result, the risks raised by DEX’s are much smaller than those presented by centralized exchanges, he said. Of course, some entities will play regulatory arbitrage for as long as they can, said Domingo. But, this is a shortsighted strategy because “even though technology moves faster than regulation, eventually regulation catches up.”Overall, however, a big question remains: Will we ever have a truly decentralized marketplace? “There are some truly decentralized marketplaces,” said Schär. A non-upgradable constant function market maker is one example, he explained:“There are no special privileges, no external dependencies and no one in charge who could even make these decisions.”Such projects are basically up and running forever — they can’t be regulated directly. For that reason, “policymakers and regulators should focus on on- and off-ramps and use indirect regulation,” added Schär. While, according to Hammer, decentralization is achievable provided an organization follows two principles: It deploys open-source code and is governed by a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO.But, perhaps there will always be some limitations on behavior even among decentralized entities, and projects will inevitably have to compromise with centralized institutions like sovereign governments. “Yes, that is how I see it,” said Domingo. “Finance will continue to become increasingly decentralized, but adoption will require safeguards to protect investors from scams and bad actors. We will eventually reach some sort of middle ground.”

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Hedera Governing Council to buy hashgraph IP, and open-source projects code

The Hedera Governing Council has officially voted to purchase the intellectual property rights to the hashgraph consensus algorithm from founding architect and inaugural member of the council, Swirlds Inc, for an undisclosed fee.A Jan. 19 announcement also details plans to transition their code to an open-source model this year under Apache 2.0 license, in addition to transferring core team members such as CEO Mance Harmon and chief scientist Dr. Leemon Baird from Hedera to Swirlds Inc. as the CEO and CTO respectively, and deploying community staking and node opportunities, among other updates.Hedera Hashgraph is an enterprise-grade distributed ledger technology designed to create decentralized applications in the Web3 sphere.It’s governing council is composed of 25 corporations including Google, IBM, Tata Communications and Boeing, who each support the project’s decentralized ambitions through the establishment and operation of blockchain nodes, and participating in governance voting, among other duties.Hedera’s evolution to an open-source technology differs from their current model of open-review, in which the code appears as publicly visible, but is not accessible for editing or developmental purposes by the global community.The decision to enact this change came about following conclusive technical assessments that the probability of a network split within the Hedera ecosystem is highly unlikely, and therefore the patent upholding legislative exclusivity to the technology can be safely distributed into the public domain, with assurances that it will not serve as an advantageous tool for market competitors, but rather a mechanism to foster internal growth.Baird, the newly appointed CTO of Swirlds, and co-chair of the Hedera Council’s Technical Steering and Product Committee, said:“From day one, I have had a vision to enable ‘Shared Worlds’, where anyone can gather, collaborate, conduct commerce, and control their own online footprint.Baird also noted that the next challenge for Hedera is to expand from a Layer 1 protocol “to deliver products and services that enable others to leverage the power of the Layer 1 protocol to create value.”Harmon and Baird, among others are scheduled to host a YouTube webinar at 11 a.m. ET on Jan. 26 to discuss the Shared Worlds initiative in further detail, alongside developments over the coming months.From a technical perspective, Hedera’s native token, HBAR has largely consolidated in the $0.33 to $0.25 price range since the turn of the year, currently valued at $0.257.Related: UK air traffic tech firm uses Hedera Hashgraph to track dronesEarlier this month, Hedera partnered with London-based tech firm, Neuron Innovations on a drone initiative designed to collate and store quantitative data metrics on an array of sectors including commercial and military aviation, as well as government initiatives.Supported by the United Kingdom’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the pilot scheme — conducted in April and October 2021 — is expected to support the adoption of drones into the existing air traffic transportation system.

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