每周编辑精选 Weekly Editor's Picks（0826-0901）
"Weekly Editor's Picks" is a "functional" column of Odaily. In addition to covering a large amount of real-time information every week, many high-quality in-depth analysis content will also be published, but they may be hidden in the information flow and hot news, passing by you.
Therefore, our editorial department will select some high-quality articles worth spending time reading and collecting from the content published in the past 7 days every Saturday, bringing new inspiration to you in the encrypted world from the perspectives of data analysis, industry judgment, and viewpoint output.
Now, let's read together:
Investment and Entrepreneurship
There is a key element in the bull market story: the printing of innovative currency. The cryptocurrency industry is best at printing money.
Forked coins of Bitcoin are the original currency printing machines in the cryptocurrency industry, and at that time, launching new coins was expensive because these proof-of-work mechanisms required electricity to maintain network security. With the ERC 20 tokens supported by Ethereum smart contracts, issuing new tokens became easier and cheaper. Tokenization became ubiquitous. With the rise in cryptocurrency prices, the use cases of cryptocurrency have also been constantly increasing. The reason for the collapse during this stage (the ERC 20 era) was that the funds flowing into the cryptocurrency system could not sustain the exponential growth of new tokens introduced every day. We eventually printed too many tokens. In addition, as the number of tokens in circulation increased, attention became scattered, causing people to feel confused about investment directions. In the DeFi Summer, protocols distributed tokens for free to liquidity providers or users through airdrops. The true motivation behind these tokens is still to bootstrap liquidity. When the daily issuance of tokens exceeded the funds flowing into the system, the DeFi market collapsed. The same goes for NFTs that followed.
We are currently in a season similar to the DeFi bull market, laying the foundation for innovative currency printing and compelling narratives. The top opportunities with the potential to create a bubble larger than the short-term narratives witnessed in this bear market are: re-staking (represented by EigenLayer) and Bitcoin DeFi. And these two narratives will also have moments of collapse, casting too many tokens to meet the growth rate of demand and attention.
We expect to reach an ATH of $69,000 by the fourth quarter of 2024 and have a crazy bull market before reaching a new ATH in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Overview of Bitcoin Spot ETF 2023 Application Status and Approval Time Prediction
ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF by Ark Invest is the earliest Bitcoin Spot ETF application in this round, which has gone through two responses and both have encountered delays. The remaining ETFs will receive their first response in early September.
Except for BlackRock, all other companies have experience with applying for Bitcoin Spot ETFs. Among them, VanEck has the most experience. Since 2018, it has had three experiences applying for Bitcoin Spot ETFs.
All 8 ETF applications have added the rejected reason mentioned in the previous 2021 application, the Surveillance Sharing Agreement (SSA).
All 8 ETF applications propose trading on one of the three exchanges: Nasdaq, Cboe BZX, and NYSE Arca. Among them, the largest proportion of applications is on Cboe BZX, accounting for 5 out of 8. This may be related to Cboe BZX's positive attitude towards cryptocurrencies and their derivatives.
There are slight differences in the level of detailed information in the 8 ETF application documents. Taking Valkyrie and VanEck as examples, both of them have not disclosed detailed custodian information.
Identify a target with (actual) low fairness, high volatility, and high trading efficiency as much as possible;
Establish a trading platform with trading mining subsidy mechanism;
Subsidize purchasing behavior through the trading mining mechanism to completely control the target;
Ensure that the total customer loss is slightly higher than the total subsidy (including pumping cost);
Package the mining mechanism with market maker terms to expand the project selection range;
Make the target active.
DeFi
Exploring the Potential Risks of the LSD Protocol Using Lido as an Example
Dual governance is an important step in reducing governance risks in the Lido protocol. It represents a shift from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism. It also provides a practical way for Ethereum holders to have a say in changes to the Lido protocol. Its main purpose is to prevent LDO holders from changing the social contract between the protocol and stETH holders without their consent.
Even with time delays in LSD governance, allowing pooled capital to exit the system before changes occur, the LSD protocol is still susceptible to governance attacks through gradual changes. Minor, slow changes are unlikely to cause capital to exit the system, but the system will still undergo significant changes over time. However, this is true for any governance mechanism, whether predominantly informal (soft) or formal (hard).
A good validator is a public good that requires financial support, and the EF should not rely on it for funding (partly due to its closed governance structure and superpowers not being great at formulating credible neutral rules), and only a successful liquidity staking protocol (>50% market share) can afford the financial inefficiency required to maintain a healthy validator market, sponsor expensive validators, and provide ecosystem support while remaining profitable in the long term (over the next 100 years).
After the Hype, What is the Current Status of the ve (3, 3) DEX Project by Solidly?
The six forks of Solidly
The Solidly model has had a positive impact on DeFi and may continue to be a highlight of innovation and development in DEX, as it can adjust token emissions and trading volume. In the current low-yield, volatile market, trading volume is also a major test for builders.
The project needs to find a way to maintain a growth incentive flywheel, such as:
Product Version: Perps (Thena)
Bribery Income: RWA Income (Pearl), OP Subsidy (Velo)
Capital Efficiency: Gamma's Treasury w Conc liq
Emission exp: Dynamic Emission (Velo)
GameFi
PSE Trading: The Revelation of the Full-chain Game, Pixel-level Analysis of the Industry Chain
The article explores the concept of full-chain games and presents a panoramic view of the value chain.
Ethereum and Scalability
PSE Trading: Modular Blockchain Narrative - Fierce Competition in the DA Layer
The four core functional modules of blockchain
Currently, nearly 70% of the cost of Rollups lies in the publication of tx data and proof data on Ethereum L1. The next step for modular blockchains is that the competition between ETH L1 and numerous dedicated DA layers in terms of data availability will significantly reduce the entry barriers for new rollups, further enhancing the scalability of blockchains and reducing interaction costs without sacrificing security and decentralization.
A unified settlement layer can enable multiple Rollups to enjoy cross-chain security and aggregate liquidity. The sorting right of tx should not be borne by the DA layer. In the next decade, Ethereum remains the best option for most Rollup consensus layers and settlement layers.
Mainstream DA layer projects include Celestia, EigenDA, Espresso, and ETH Proto-Darksharding:
Ethereum Rollup benefits from the cost reduction of blob data storage brought by EIP 4844 after the Cancun upgrade, and may continue to maintain the market competitiveness of ETH L1 in the DA module;
Optimistic about DA layer solutions that use ETH L1 as the settlement layer (such as Celestium), which brings better "Lego-like" interoperability between execution layers by sharing cross-chain security/liquidity, and is conducive to the healthy development of the ecosystem;
Optimistic about DA layer solutions based on the EigenLayer collateral protocol (such as EigenDA, Espresso), which can not only reduce the cost of tx data storage but also share some ETH L1 security;
Shared sequencer solutions with good incentive allocation mechanisms (such as PBS) will be adopted by the leading Rollup execution layers. The transaction filtering/sorting power should not be given to the DA layer, and the DA layer should focus on the task of making data available.
Binance Research: In-depth interpretation of decentralized sequencer
Rollups do not actually need a sequencer; it is just a design choice to provide users with lower fees and faster transaction confirmation speed.
Since the sequencer controls the order of transactions, it has the power to review user transactions (although complete censorship is unlikely as users can submit transactions directly to L1). The sequencer can also extract maximum extractable value ("MEV"), which may cause economic losses to the user group. In addition, validity may also be a major issue, if the sole centralized sequencer goes down, users will not be able to use the sequencer, and the entire rollup will be affected.
The solution to the problem is a shared, decentralized sequencer. Espresso, Astria, and Radius are developing innovative shared sorting solutions, each with unique features in their respective architectures. Espresso attempts to utilize EigenLayer to guide its network, while Astria maintains close ties with the modular data availability network Celestia. Radius brings its unique encrypted mempool into the conversation.
The Battle Between ZK/OP Route of RaaS: Why ZK-RaaS is Superior?
ZK-Rollups have the following advantages compared to Optimistic Rollups:
Compressed transaction data saves more L1 gas costs;
More secure without the need for trust;
Faster transaction confirmation speed and shorter withdrawal time.
ZK-RaaS also has advantages in the following aspects through network effects:
ZK-RaaS provides scalable computing power for a massive amount of ZK-Rollups through ZK-PoW, which reduces the cost of ZKP calculation;
Benefiting from the faster transaction confirmation speed of ZK-Rollup (in minutes), native cross-rollup communication (NCRC) protocol can be realized between ZK-Rollups, thus solving the problem of fragmented liquidity.
Multi-Ecosystem and Cross-Chain
After analyzing the activity data of public chain users, I discovered these seven key points
The Cardano and Polygon communities are very strong;
Litecoin is rarely used;
In terms of users and usage, BNB Chain > Solana > Avalanche;
Ethereum remains the king, and besides Ethereum L1, voters prefer to use Optimistic Rollup chains;
Tron is often used for CEX transfers, and it serves as a payment method for underdeveloped countries with weak banking systems.
OP Research: Is "Cosmos" the ultimate form of Layer 2?
OP Stack has reproduced the strategy of Cosmos, and the market will definitely see the emergence of a role like Cosmos or OP superchain. This role will serve as a hub connecting different blockchain networks, achieving the growth of the entire ecosystem through creating synergies and sharing ecological resources.
With the maturity of ZK technology and the removal of barriers, it is very likely that the ZK series or the OP series that introduces ZK technology will take over the Layer 2 multi-chain banner. ZK technology inherently has high TPS and decentralization, which are the two most critical attributes for scalability and expansion aside from compatibility. It is also a technical guarantee under highly shared security conditions.
Can liquidity staking save the Cosmos ecosystem?
The goal of the Cosmos network is to achieve the vision of the App Chain: each application has its own PoS blockchain, and they are connected to each other. However, the problem is that this means almost all value is locked on-chain, used to stake its native tokens to protect network security. LSD can unlock the dormant value on Cosmos. By allowing stakers to mint derivative tokens representing their staked assets, liquidity can flow freely once again. Moreover, since staking is crucial for Cosmos, the adoption of the LSD platform may be rapid and widespread.
A massive influx of liquidity can greatly expand the DeFi potential on the Cosmos chain. Additionally, Cosmos's cross-chain features are very suitable for LSD products.
However, there is currently no efficient and validated solution for liquidity staking in the ecosystem. But this situation may be changing. Stride will become the leading LSD solution in Cosmos, given its impressive growth and important use in inter-chain security.
Weekly Hot Topics Recap
During the past week, Grayscale won the lawsuit against the SEC (viewpoints from multiple parties and interpretation) and the crypto market rallied. The SEC has postponed the decision on at least 3 Bitcoin ETF applications (details). As a result, the market retraced (market analysis). X has obtained a currency transmission license in Rhode Island and can offer payment services in seven states (details). Elon Musk denies the statement that X will issue X tokens for creators on the platform (news).
In terms of policies and macro markets, Hashdex has applied to hold spot BTC in its Bitcoin futures ETF (details). A judge dismissed a collective lawsuit against Uniswap, stating that developers should not be held responsible for the misconduct of third parties (details). Crypto bank SEBA has received preliminary approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to offer OTC derivatives and other crypto-related products (details). Hong Kong implements a dual licensing system for virtual asset trading platforms, and OSL and HashKey are applying for the second type of license. A report from the Chinese People's Court: virtual currency is legal property and protected by law (details).
Regarding perspectives and voices, Grey CEO: When GBTC is converted to a cryptocurrency ETF, management fees will be reduced, Xiao Feng: The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission may issue regulatory guidance on STOs by the end of this year, Hashkey COO: It is expected that only 5 to 8 exchanges will ultimately be able to obtain Hong Kong regulatory licenses, PYUSD adoption rate in the initial stage is lower than expected, 90% of the total token supply is still held in the issuing party's Paxos Trust address;
Institutions, large companies, and top projects: Paradigm launches Rivet, a wallet tool for developers, Victory Securities may open retail virtual asset trading in the fourth quarter, Coinbase has launched PYUSD, a PayPal USD stablecoin, HashKey Exchange opens BTC/USD and ETH/USD trading pairs to retail investors, OKX Hong Kong enables bank card purchase of digital currencies, Ethereum Foundation releases Ethereum Execution Layer Specification, Ethereum Foundation officially launches Ethereum Execution Layer Specification, Balancer: has formulated mitigation procedures for vulnerabilities but cannot suspend affected pools, exact loss amount cannot be disclosed temporarily, Proposal of "Deploying V2 on all chains with Uniswap V3" passes temperature check vote, Optimism allocates initial OP tokens to Base via grant, friend.tech: users will have existing points confiscated if they use counterfeit versions of the app, fade of friend.tech craze, PEPE crashes;
NFT and GameFi fields, OpenSea releases redeemable NFT standard, will introduce on-chain redeemable support to creators, Binance Mining Pool launches Ordinals inscription service... Well, it's been a roller coaster week.
Attached is the "Editor's Picks of the Week" series link.
See you next time~
